DT1 Dark is the Hour
by Lamby
Summary: Dark Trilogy part 1. When Xavier and the XMen rescue a mutant who is afraid of her powers, she leads them into a criminal underworld where mutants & humans have always worked together. AU to X3, my first fic!
1. Scene 1

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters.  
  
Author's note: X2 SPOILERS in later chapters. This is my first X-Men fic, I hope you enjoy it, please r&r...  
  
Scene One  
  
It was dark. Black and sullen, the sky masked with clouds, the streetlights murky with fog and grime. In the distance the freeway hummed with its constant traffic, alive. But here, in the back streets and alleyways of the industrial quarter of the city, she could almost believe she was alone.  
  
She walked quickly, a young woman in an unfamiliar setting, dressed in strappy shoes, trousers and matching jacket, her steps clicking on the hard asphalt with every step. Uncertain, she took a wrong turn and faced an eight-foot wire mesh fence; this place was like maze... Panic began to well in her gut, churning her stomach, making her warm and uncomfortable. Forcefully she turned her mind back to the task in hand, she could not panic now.  
  
It was then she heard the first signs of her pursuit. With unexpected agility she turned back down the blocked alley at a run, and launched herself at the mesh. She had it! Her fingers grasped the taunt wire tight, her feet kicked for a purchase, and then she was over. Dropping down the other side almost silently, she landed in a catlike crouch. Looking each way, she decided on the left, and made her break.  
  
It was the wrong way. The back street the alley with the fence came off simply snaked round the dominating warehouse, meeting the left hand road further up. She hadn't realised! She was so stupid! Mentally she swore at herself, fear cornering her like a rabbit even before her pursuers spotted her.  
  
The shout went up, one pursuer to the other. There was nothing for it; she bolted. She would not be drawn into a confrontation if she could help it. In the darkness, in this maze, she may yet lose them. Running through puddles she ruined the expensive shoes for good. She could hear them behind her, running like she was. Fast as she was, the men were faster, faster even than her heart beating like a rumble of thunder in her ribcage. Time to hide, to lie low, but which way?  
  
Right this time and for a moment it worked out, the footsteps receded a little behind her. Right again, round the back of an abandoned garage, she might be able to hide inside... Shit!  
  
Dead end. Brick wall. At least ten feet, no way to climb it, even for her. Garage to one side with no roof to climb onto, yet another warehouse to the other... This is it, she thought, no more running.  
  
For a second, she had almost kidded herself that she was calm. But she had never liked confrontation, and as she heard the two men approaching it was as though her own panicked breathing, her thundering heart were drawing them to her. Nowhere to hide, they would find her, they would...  
  
Her thoughts were cut short. They had found her. The first man was tall, wiry, armed with a knife. He was silhouetted by the vague, misty streetlights in the distance, but she didn't need to see his face to know he was smirking. So this is what she had come to, a plaything for a thug with a knife.  
  
But no. The second man did not have the patience for his companion's games. They were here for only one reason. Carefully, he took the safety off his handgun.  
  
CRACK! She heard the bullet release before she knew he had a gun; fell back with a scream as it hit her hard in the shoulder. Pain destroyed her barriers. Everything went red, hot like dragon's breath, and the men screamed with her. Did they even know what they had done? Then she blacked out...  
  
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Professor Charles Xavier removed the Cerebro helmet carefully, worry creasing his brow. Slowly he shook his head, trying to calm the irrational terror the strange mutant girl had left almost imprinted on him. It had not, he realised, been a terror of her pursuers. She had been justifiably terrified of what they might make her do to them... 


	2. Scene 2

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Also thank you to my good friend Corrinth for the use of her creation Ilehana Xavier, aka Vixen, she makes a very good doctor!  
  
A/N: I'd like to take this opportunity to firmly plug Corrinth's story 'The Ties of Mutant Blood', its good, check it out!  
  
Scene Two  
  
She was dreaming. She knew she was. But at the same time the dream was so real it was as though she could almost reach out and take his hand, her comrade of old. She felt it from him too, that aching loss when souls so long together are tormented from too long apart.  
  
**I've really messed up. It happened again... ** She tried to keep her voice neutral, but a lump rose in her throat and her voice quivered. She was afraid, and he knew it.  
  
**Shhush, Blaze. It's not your fault. ** His voice tore at her heart, that soft voice she missed so much. She reached out, hoping for just the briefest touch of his hand, but the dream was fading.  
  
**No! ** She grabbed at the dream, clinging on with all her might.  
  
**It's okay, little one. It will be okay... **  
  
"How can it be, when I'm so alone?"  
  
"You're not alone, I am right here." A woman's voice, richly accented, was one that Blaze vaguely recognised. Blaze hadn't realised she was speaking out loud. She tried to open her eyes. "No, don't try and move. You've been badly hurt."  
  
"Who are you? Where am I?" Her throat cracked, her voice was dry and long unused.  
  
"My name is Storm. You are safe, relax, no one will hurt you here. Go back to sleep..."  
  
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Nightmare took her, deep in the night when all the school slept. It was a nightmare she had had before, but knowing the outcome made it only the more terrifying. Blaze found herself back in her own room, in her parent's house in England. Cheesy pop music pounded out of her stereo, as she lay on her belly on her bed, face hidden in her pillows, soft cotton absorbing her tears. Even above the music she could still hear her mother laughing downstairs with a man who was not her father.  
  
Suddenly the front door slammed. But her father wasn't due home until much later. Fifteen year old Blaze lifted her head, just in time to hear her mother scream in surprise. Raised voices, arguing, her mother's friend trying to leave, anger from her parents, each directing the blame at the other.  
  
Blaze's tears ran hot down her face. The palms of her hands prickled. Her head throbbed with anger, hatred, upset, and most of all betrayal. In her belly dragon's fire itself began to consume her, eating her from the inside out. Still downstairs voices yelled, things were smashed; perhaps her mother's best china, or the vase Blaze's grandmother had bequeathed them.  
  
Blaze could control herself no longer. All her walls, her unconscious barriers that kept herself separate from the world around her, were burnt up in a ball of painful flame. It was like being the centre of a star, fire flew all around her, burning, destroying. But, as though in slow motion, Blaze sat calm and empty, unharmed in the midst of the maelstrom.  
  
Downstairs the arguing stopped. Screams of outright terror, screams of the dying greeted the wave of fire and flame. Then, after a while, all was quiet...  
  
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"How is our patient this morning?" Professor Charles Xavier tried to keep his voice calm and optimistic as he entered the infirmary, but he already knew something was gravely wrong. Some dreams were so powerful that even the most well controlled telepaths could not guard against witnessing them.  
  
"Not good Professor," Storm was a competent nurse, Jean had seen to that before she... But this young woman she had rescued three days ago was worsening, and Storm hated feeling helpless. "She spoke to me yesterday evening, but now..."  
  
"Dad," Dr. Ilehana Xavier put down the equipment she was toying with and addressed the Professor calmly. "The bullet wound is the least of our problems. Her metabolism runs perhaps twice as fast as normal, in order to fuel her power. Right now, when it should be helping her to heal more quickly, it's beginning to shut down instead. We have her on a glucose- saline drip to try and kick start it again, but its not working as we would like." Ilehana paused, her predatory eyes locking with her father's trusting ones. "If she doesn't want to come back to us, there is only one person here who could perhaps change her mind."  
  
Xavier took her meaning. He was so very proud of his daughter, but sometimes she did ask the most difficult things of him. He flicked the control lever on his electric wheelchair into forward. The two women stood back from the bed as he approached it, intent on the peaceful expression on the patient's face. In dark contrast he could almost feel the turmoil of the lost soul deep inside this mystery girl. Without looking away, he addressed Storm again.  
  
"Storm, you said she spoke to you? What did she say?"  
  
"She said, 'How can it be, when I am so alone?' " The desperateness of those few words had tormented Storm all night long. "And then she asked who I was, and where was she. I told her my name, and that she was safe. Then she went back into the coma."  
  
"Hum." Xavier went around to the top of the bed, and with great care placed his hands around the young woman's head. Storm stood still, intent on the tableaux, but Ilehana turned away to busy herself across the room. She refused to intrude on such a private moment between her father and this new mutant. Slowly, the Professor composed himself, before gently initiating telepathic contact.  
  
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It was almost like diving into a deep, dark ocean. An ocean of secrets waiting to be explored. Xavier rebuked himself; he must resist the temptation, the pull of another's memories, knowledge and feelings. He had a job to do, and this mutant needed him.  
  
Opening his mental self, he sent out searching tendrils with which to find the girl's conscious mind. Somewhere in the darkness, someone pulled back sharply from the touch of his net. A weak pulse of revulsion, **what are you doing here? ** The weakness of the response worried Xavier, if he didn't find her soon she would be gone forever, she had withdrawn so far into herself.  
  
He set off to follow the tendril that had got so close. Images, memories, feelings that he had no right to witness assaulted his senses. Still she pulled back from his efforts, making Xavier more uncomfortable. He did not want to intrude on her, but he was doing this for her own good.  
  
**I am trying to save you! **  
  
Another consciousness seemed to brush at Xavier's intruding mind. Someone else was here? But as quickly as Xavier tried to investigate, it was gone again. Resolutely Xavier pushed on after the girl, he must have imagined the presence.  
  
Diving deep into that ocean, pulled and buffeted by emotions and temptations, Xavier found himself almost struggling to remember who he was. But he would not stop his search; all the time he could feel the girl's energy being drained. The more she sought to hide from him, the faster she seemed to be dying. In utter urgency he made one last deep dive into her most secret mind. There, alone and cowering, he found her.  
  
**You do not belong here... ** Her voice was weak; she was so nearly gone.  
  
**Blaze, ** He did not know where the knowledge of her name came from, but again another, third person seemed almost to be present. **Blaze, you can trust me. I come only to help you. **  
  
**How can I trust you? Look what you have done... **  
  
She was right, how could he ask her for her trust when he had intruded so far into her mind without permission?  
  
**...I don't even know who you are. **  
  
He knew then what to offer her. He gave her himself, showed her his ideals of a world where mutants and humans could live together in peace. He showed her his precious school, growing every day to better serve the mutant children who called it home. Xavier presented 'his' children, his pupils whom he loved so much. He offered up Bobby and Rogue's blossoming relationship, Kitty's joy at solving a particularly hard algebra equation, Jubilee's love of music. He gave her Scott's honour, Storm's courage, Nightcrawler's faith, and Logan's wiry humour. He revealed to her Jean, and the ways each and every member of the academy mourned her passing. He showed her his precious Ilehana, his pride and love for her. And finally Xavier offered his one true love, Ilehana's mother, his wife now dead so many years, who he missed so much...  
  
It worked. Not only had it gained Blaze's attention, but the illusive presence was transfixed also. Xavier felt two minds brush gently just out of his reach. Then the presence was gone, and Blaze was reaching out to Xavier.  
  
**Help me? ** So softly uttered, as though she was ashamed. Without answering Xavier took her conscious in his metaphorical hand, and struck out for the surface. Gently he placed her back where she should have been all along. He showed her how to take control again of her own body. Then he left her, going back to his own mind, suddenly so tired. 


	3. Scene 3

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Also thank you to my good friend Corrinth for the use of her creation Ilehana Xavier, aka Vixen.  
  
A/N: What ever you do, don't forget to review! Tee hee hee.  
  
Scene Three  
  
Logan opened the cupboard and reached for another three bottles of soda. Then his heightened sense of hearing alerted him to another person about to enter the kitchen, so he got an extra bottle. He used a single adimantium claw as an effective bottle opener, flicking the caps onto the work surface. Turning back to his companions he plonked the glass bottles down on the table and waited for the Iceman to do his thing.  
  
Bobby was only too happy to oblige, he'd lost count of the amount of bottles he'd chilled for Wolverine. Next to him, his girlfriend Rogue continued her story in her sweet Southern belle accent.  
  
"So anyway, just as Bobby got to the branch where the Frisbee was stuck, Nightcrawler appeared and grabbed it first! Bobby fell right out of the tree in surprise, but before he could hit the ground, Nightcrawler appeared again, caught him, and teleported outta there! It was the funniest thing I have ever seen!"  
  
"Cheers Rogue." Bobby commented; he'd had to suffer the humiliation of her telling the story to at least three different audiences already this evening. Still, at least Logan wasn't laughing like all the others had done. Actually, he wasn't even listening; he was looking past the couple and out the door. Bobby turned to see who it was, and smiled.  
  
Blaze smiled back, a little unsure. She'd only been out of bed an hour; it had taken that long to find the kitchen. Now she'd found it, she was absolutely starving, but the room was full of strangers. The lad who'd smiled beckoned her in.  
  
"Hey, Blaze. I'm Bobby, you wanna soda?" So that was why Logan had got four bottles out not three, Bobby realised, he hadn't just been being greedy.  
  
"Thanks," Blaze perched on a stool and accepted the bottle. Anxious to state her claim to Bobby, Rogue introduced herself.  
  
"Hiya, I'm Rogue, How are you feelin'?" She practically draped Bobby's arm around her shoulders, just in case Blaze had any doubt.  
  
"Much better, thank you." Blaze looked confused. In a school as big as this one seemed, how come everyone knew who she was? As if he was telepathic, Bobby tried to make her at ease.  
  
"Don't worry about everyone knowing your name. News travels fast round here, and we've had a few days since you arrived to prepare."  
  
"Prepare for what?" Blaze smiled honestly, almost relaxing for the first time in a long while.  
  
"Well... I guess..." Logan smiled at Bobby's uncertainty, but he could see why the boy was getting flustered. And Rogue for that matter. The newcomer was pretty, with deep brown eyes and auburn hair, button nose, rosebud lips and high cheekbones. And she did have a charming smile. But there was something about her that Logan just couldn't place; something untrustworthy that spooked him. And she smelt of fire, more so even than Pyro had done. Logan had never liked the smell of fire.  
  
"Hey, Logan, don't just stand there, come introduce yourself!" Rogue obviously needed backup. He smiled as he wondered if Blaze knew what she would be taking on with Rogue. He offered Blaze his hand, felt her weighing him up, strength, agility, powers, as she shook it.  
  
"Nice to meet you, Logan. Are you a teacher here then? What do you teach?" Blaze enquired sweetly enough.  
  
"Art, apparently." He replied, looking sideways at Bobby and Rogue.  
  
"Oh." Blaze raised a single eyebrow questioningly.  
  
"It's a long story." Logan filled in, not believing he was warming to a girl he didn't entirely trust. How old was she, he wondered. She didn't look much older than Bobby or Rogue, but there was none of their innocence about her. Perhaps twenty-one, or twenty-two...  
  
"I can believe it. Is there any chance of a bite to eat round here? You know what they say about hospital food." Blaze placed the empty soda bottle on the worktop, and Logan realised he hadn't even started his. It would be getting warm again. He wished he could figure this kid out.  
  
Logan excused himself as Bobby fished in the freezer to find enough pizza for everyone. That boy was certainly going to get an earful from Rogue later; he was too nice for his own good. At least Blaze hadn't seemed too smitten with the kid. Hoping to find a sympathetic ear for his instincts on the new girl, he went to find the Professor.  
  
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"Logan, I do believe your fears are unfounded. Blaze is here because she is afraid of her own mutant abilities. It's not the kind of problem a person can fake, especially not to me. Do you trust me?"  
  
It was a stupid question, so Logan didn't justify the Professor with a reply. Instead he changed the subject.  
  
"How's Cyclops doin'?"  
  
"I believe your answer is just being thrown out of a taxi. Care to join me?" Xavier flicked his wheelchair control and headed out of the office. Logan followed him, shaking his head.  
  
"Again? I know the guy has problems but..."  
  
There were children in the corridor, so whilst hurrying them off to bed, Xavier answered Logan telepathically.  
  
**We have all developed ways in which to cope with the loss of Jean. **  
  
**And you think that letting Cyc go off the rails like this is helping him cope? **  
  
They were outside now, with the front door shut behind them. Sure enough, a taxi at the end of the drive opened its door and a very ill-looking Scott Summers fell out. Huffing and shaking his head, Logan went to collect his fallen colleague. The things he did for the Professor...He hoped that something around here changed soon, things were really starting to drag.  
  
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After eating an entire twelve-inch triple cheese deep pan pizza, three scoops of vanilla ice cream and a king-sized chocolate bar, Blaze was not only sated, but also increasingly relaxed in Bobby and Rogue's company. Plonking her third empty soda bottle on the worktop before Bobby's frosting had even started to melt around the sides, she stood, placed her hands on her tiny waist and asked, to Bobby and Rogue's delight,  
  
"So what do you people do for fun around here?" 


	4. Scene 4

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Also thank you to my good friend Corrinth for the use of her creation Ilehana Xavier, aka Vixen.  
  
A/N: All reviews very much appreciated, thanks : )  
  
Scene Four  
  
"Her improvement is impressive. I see no reason to keep her in the infirmary any longer. Its time she had her own room and some privacy. And was out from under my feet." Dr. Ilehana Xavier delivered her final report to her father. Blaze grinned from ear to ear, finally! But, like a rumble of thunder on a fine summer's afternoon, she could feel an itch in her palms, fire in her belly, and she wondered if perhaps the decision was a safe one.  
  
"Very well." The Professor smiled kindly at his daughter, before turning to Blaze. "Storm has already been busy preparing a room and a wardrobe for you, I will have her show you them both later."  
  
"Thank you," Blaze stuttered, these people gave her so much, and she didn't even know them. "I don't know how to repay you for all of this..."  
  
"Blaze, you are not the first mutant to arrive at this school with nothing but the clothes you were wearing. Nor, I fear, shall you be the last. All I ask in return is that you come with me now, and we shall begin our lessons." The Professor turned to leave, and dutifully Blaze followed him though a little confused.  
  
"Lessons?" She left the snide comment that she was a little old for history or economics unsaid.  
  
"You did ask me to help you, didn't you Blaze?" There was a touch of a naughty schoolboy in the Professor's tone. "I am planning to help you learn to control your mutant ability."  
  
Blaze's belly tightened and all her hopes dropped like bricks on her soul. Did he think she had never tried to learn? The denial she had built up, all the walls that usually kept her powers under control were her own hard work. But at the same time, surely the Professor in his years as head of this amazing school had come across mutants like her before? Maybe he had a trick up his sleeve that could solve her problems once and for all...  
  
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"What you must realise Blaze is that every single mutant on this planet is different. Whilst superficially two powers may appear very similar, the nature of this next step in human evolution is variability. As any normal human is different from any other, so every mutant is equally different from any other mutant at the most basic genetic level."  
  
Blaze's skin crawled, was this man trying to get himself killed? The more he talked about how arduous this learning process was going to be for the both of them, the more she internally writhed under the pressure. They both knew one little slip would send the school up in flames. But Xavier seemed so confident, so trusting in the skills she had already developed. The more time she spent in the Professor's company, the more she wanted desperately to trust him in return.  
  
"Blaze, I know how much you fear this, I can feel it. But this is the only way to get through this, to make sure you never lose control again."  
  
Slowly, she nodded, and closed her big, brown eyes. Parting her lips slightly she exhaled, placing her hands on her lap and leaning back into the large, comfy chair. Outside the open window children giggled and played, whilst the Wolverine kept watch. In the corridor Rogue was asking Kitty if she had seen the bracelet Bobby had gotten her for her birthday, it had been misplaced. Blaze pushed all these distractions away and tried to relax.  
  
Suddenly, with an ease that was breathtaking Xavier was inside her mind again. Through the telepathic contact he poured confidence, calm and most of all trust. Verbally, he began to instruct her.  
  
"First of all, Blaze, check your controls. Make sure your walls and barriers are strong."  
  
**Like this? **  
  
**Yes, just like that. ** She could feel his pride; normally mutants came to him with no control at all. That Blaze could completely stifle her powers for long periods of time was an impressive achievement.  
  
"But your very over-control of your powers may be what has caused you to lose control. That night, you knew it would not take very much to push you to break you barriers"  
  
"Yes," Blaze nodded. "I had been feeling it building up, like too much water behind a dam, for a while. But I couldn't let go. Now, it's different. It feels like the fire is just under the surface, trying to get out in little bits and pieces."  
  
"That's good." Xavier was so calm, so placid. Blaze could almost see his smile even though she had her eyes tight shut. "Look inside yourself. Try and focus on one of those sparks."  
  
In her mind, he showed her what he meant. He took her deep inside herself to a point where a ball of electric bright light throbbed and pulsed, her own power. For a second she held that image, being sure she would never forget where it was inside her. Then as a small tendril of her power crept towards her, she grabbed at it.  
  
It disappeared. Growling, Blaze dived again towards the well of power and tried to grab the next tendril. It too disappeared. Xavier pushed encouragement and hope through the telepathic bond, but for two hours Blaze could not hang onto a single thread of her power for more than a second. Drained and frustrated, and not entirely sure what she would do with a tendril if she could hold onto it, Blaze opened her eyes.  
  
"This is useless!" She had cramp in her neck, and pins and needles in her feet. She felt hungry, sweaty, and not very appreciative. Xavier let her leave, breaking the telepathic link and hoping she would soon cool off.  
  
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Blaze stormed outside, desperate for some fresh air. A cool autumnal breeze blew through the grounds, dislodging the first yellowing leaves from the many tall trees. She ignored Bobby's friendly holler of "Hey Blaze!" from the basketball court, instead heading out away from the house to find some peace for herself. Taking a winding path past an old gazebo, she found a small lawn, almost surrounded by fragrant bushes and ancient trees. Standing in the centre of the grass she looked back the way she had come. Good, she couldn't even see the house for all the foliage. With a deep sigh she sat down against a tree trunk.  
  
Tired as she suddenly was, she knew what she had to do. All this unsuccessful work with her power had weakened her control. She could feel the flames creeping up her spine, making her afraid. Blaze had killed too many people, some she cared about and some she did not, because she had lost control. She would not harm her new friends if she could help it.  
  
Her tiredness seemed to aid the necessary meditative trance. She was too tired to care about being hungry, or about the insects buzzing around her head, so the distractions were easily overcome. Quicker than Blaze thought possible she had rebuilt her defences, imagining herself surrounded by adimantium walls on all sides. Then she could relax.  
  
The sun was beginning to set, casting everything into golden hues, when she opened her eyes from her meditation. She was not alone. The strangest creature sat opposite her, blue and elfin. He sat like she did, cross- legged and open armed, in meditation, she realised. Not wanting to disturb him, she waited for him to open his eyes by himself.  
  
"I am sorry, very sorry." The blue man seemed quite upset when he finally opened his eyes to find her sat looking at him. His accent was profoundly European, and he had beautiful tattoos all over his face and arms. "You looked so peaceful, I could not help but join you..."  
  
"Who are you?" Questioned Blaze. She had never seen a mutant so extreme in appearance, but there seemed to be nothing unpleasant about him.  
  
"I am the Amazing Nightcrawler!" He announced with a bow, a strange motion for a man sat cross-legged on a lawn. Then as if embarrassed he added, "Kurt. My name is Kurt."  
  
"Guten Tag, Kurt. Ich heisse Blaze." She smiled, and he smiled back, pleased that she would attempt to greet him in his own tongue.  
  
"You speak many languages?" He asked as she stood, brushing grass off of her clothes.  
  
"A few. I've travelled a fair bit so..."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Spent time in Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Montreal, Cape Town..." Nightcrawler nodded, impressed despite his own meandering adventures. Demonstrating his powers for the first time, he teleported to a standing position, making Blaze both jump and laugh. "You know, you'd make a fine thief!"  
  
Nightcrawler looked as though she had hit him in the face.  
  
"Why would you say such a thing? I have done nothing to offend you."  
  
Mentally Blaze cursed herself, way to blow her cover!  
  
"I'm so sorry, Kurt, I didn't mean it as an insult, really I didn't." He looked at her curiously, frowning. There was nothing for it, she had too many enemies in the world to risk making another one here. Surely such a peaceful man would keep her secret? Blaze took a deep breath.  
  
"I am a thief. At least, I was before I came here. I ran away from home at fifteen and the only way I could survive was to steal what I needed. Please don't judge me, Kurt, I didn't even know places like this existed when I found out I was a mutant. Being a thief, a criminal, a murderer is all I have ever known..."  
  
Logan hadn't meant to overhear the conversation between Kurt and Blaze; he just couldn't help it. A heightened sense of hearing means you overhear all sorts of stuff you don't wanna know. But as he stood hidden in the shadow of a tree, listening to the new kid spilling her criminal guts to Nightcrawler, he was increasingly glad he had never even started to trust her... 


	5. Scene 5

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Also thank you to my good friend Corrinth for the use of her creation Ilehana Xavier, aka Vixen.  
  
A/N: Don't forget to review please!  
  
Scene Five  
  
**I miss you. **  
  
**I miss you too petite. ** She believed him, wondering how again she had wandered into this dream that felt so real.  
  
**Mon Ami, please come find me... It's safe here I promise, we can be together again. ** Blaze felt his temptation; he could, if he wanted to. She also felt his will strengthen, he had to do this first...**Where are you? ** She asked; trying to push beyond the parameters of the dream and see for herself what was so important it kept her best friend from her.  
  
**Don't do that. ** He gently blocked her out, but not before she had the impression of somewhere grey, bland and claustrophobic. She couldn't place it though.  
  
**But they won't be able to do anything, we could be together and they couldn't touch you, or me. Mon Ami? **  
  
**Non. Ce'st impossible. ** The dream was fading, but for a moment as she woke it was as though his finger's brushed her cheek. Opening her eyes she reached up to her face, hopeful, but she found only tears.  
  
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The refrigerator door slammed shut with a satisfying thud as its contents rattled. Blaze added chocolate milk and a tub of yoghurt to her pile of supplies and headed for the rec. room. Another hour session with Xavier had again been unfruitful, she was tired and grouchy and absolutely famished.  
  
The redhead threw herself down into a big chair, scattering her snacks over the coffee table in front of her. Storm raised an eyebrow at the pile from her position sat in front of the TV. Nightcrawler was the only other person in the room, engrossed in a big brown tome, perched on top on, rather than sat in, another chair away by the window. From a pocket Blaze produced a pack of cards and began shuffling them with ease but in frustration.  
  
"Do you play?" Another man had entered the room, Scott Summers known as Cyclops. Blaze had had little to do with him in her month-long stay at the academy. Looking at him now as he addressed her, she could see the very grief at loosing his lover wrought on his face. This man was still suffering, three months after loosing Jean Grey. Blaze had an uncomfortable feeling that it was driving Cyclops over the edge.  
  
"Not really," She tried to keep her voice passive, hoping he would take his broken heart elsewhere. He didn't.  
  
"Oh really? Could've fooled me." He pulled up a stool, and in a quiet voice said "Come on, hit me."  
  
Sighing, recognising a gambler when she met one, Blaze put the deck on the table and cleared a space between the chocolate bars and the doughnuts. She took the top four cards and spread them face-up in the gap.  
  
"Four cards, the point is to try and 'splat the jack'." She indicated the jack of hearts. "I'll shuffle them, place them here face down and you tell me where the jack is. Total luck, one in four chance of getting it right."  
  
"Yeah right..." Cyclops smiled slyly, they both knew she'd ripped people off with this trick. Blaze swept up the cards and shuffled them, spread them out again and looked at Scott. "Um... Lets see..." He was too into this, she didn't like it. "That one." Blaze flicked the card he'd pointed to over. The seven of diamonds glinted at him.  
  
"Bad luck."  
  
"Fair enough." Cyclops commented, leaning back and knowing it hadn't been. "But how about we make this more interesting?" He pulled out a dollar bill and put it on the table.  
  
"No."  
  
"Why not?" He was angry, but trying to hide it.  
  
"Because I will beat you."  
  
"I don't care! Hit me!"  
  
"Scott?" Storm was getting out of her seat; Nightcrawler was looking at them both carefully. Outside the door some of the smaller children peered in at the sound of raised voices. Nightcrawler teleported outside and shut the door behind him, this was not something the children should see. "Scott, calm down..."  
  
"BLAZE!" The door flew open, and the Wolverine marched in. Blaze shook her head, this just wasn't her day. Oh how she longed to curl up in bed...  
  
"Logan." She acknowledged him, leaning back in her chair and shuffling her cards again. "What can I do for you?"  
  
"Do you find it funny to steal from kids? From the people who took you in and cared for you? What's your game here, thief?"  
  
Slowly Blaze looked from Logan, to Nightcrawler and back again. Nightcrawler shook his head, in shock.  
  
"I did not say anything, I promise..."  
  
"I overheard you confiding in our blue friend here." If Logan really were a wolverine, Blaze would have been savaged by now, she was sure. Ilehana, Bobby and Rogue came up behind Logan, looking confused. "What have you done with the stuff you've taken, you thieving..."  
  
"I've not taken anything!"  
  
"No? Not Rogue's bracelet? Not Cameron's watch? Jubilee's CD player thing? Storm's pendant?" With every accusation Logan took another step towards Blaze, until he was standing over her and Scott like a man possessed. Blaze turned to Storm.  
  
"You've had a pendant stolen?"  
  
"I don't know about stolen, but yes, one has gone missing."  
  
"And you Rogue?" The younger girl nodded her head. Next to her Bobby looked like a gaping fish. Blaze didn't want to know what her two friends were thinking right now.  
  
"Logan, would you kindly tell me what is going on here?" Professor Xavier entered the room, authority ringing in his voice. Almost as if he had had the wind sucked out of his sails, Logan replied in a sulky voice.  
  
"Things have been taken from a whole load of people. And Blaze has admitted to being a thief by profession. So I was just asking her..."  
  
"Accusing me! And I didn't do anything! But give me one night and I will have your precious stuff back Wolverine, count on it!" Blaze stormed off, leaving the X-men exchanging worried looks.  
  
"Logan, next time you feel you have to accost one of our guests about something, please come and speak to me about it first." Xavier's voice was calm, but Logan could tell he was annoyed. He hung his head.  
  
"Professor, do you know who did steal the things?" Storm enquired.  
  
"Of course. But I think Blaze wants this chance to prove that she deserves a little more of your respect." Xavier turned his wheelchair around and left. Bobby and Rogue followed him out, talking in hushed voices. Ilehana, the Vixen, addressed the Wolverine.  
  
"If you're that bored that you have to start a witch hunt, I'm sure I could find you something to do." She, too, turned to leave. "I'll be in the garage if you need me..."  
  
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  
Both Logan and Kurt left shortly afterwards, though not together. Storm approached Scott with a worried expression.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"I don't know what's wrong with me Storm. I mean, who cares if some kid has stolen some stuff? Jean is dead, and nothing else is important to me anymore." He sounded exhausted. Storm wished she could understand what he was going through, wished she could do more to help him. "If anybody asks where I am, I'll be at Diego's" He stood to leave, Diego's was his favourite dive these days, he was there more days than he wasn't. And if Blaze wouldn't accept his bets, he knew a college football fanatic who would give him a good price on this afternoon's game.  
  
"No, Scott, don't go." Storm desperately tried to stop him, but he brushed her aside and was gone. 


	6. Scene 6

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Also thank you to my good friend Corrinth for the use of her creation Ilehana Xavier, aka Vixen.  
  
Scene Six  
  
Barefooted she patrolled the empty corridors that night. From talking to Rogue, Jubilee and Storm, Blaze had built up a mental picture of the movements of the thief. She had no idea who this Cameron was, but it didn't really matter. In this school, even without the exceptional security systems in place, chances were it was a pupil, a child. It wasn't really even a challenge to find out who it was.  
  
Dressed as she was, in jogging pants and strappy cotton vest, barefoot and hair pulled up into a scruffy knot, she might have just been unable to sleep. Unfortunately chances were she wouldn't be getting to bed for hours. She learnt the layout of the building well that night, patrolling it endlessly in the half-light of lamps and computer screens, darting from shadow to shadow lest somebody realise she was about.  
  
The problem was that Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters never slept, not really. Frequently Blaze had to dive for cover, despite the very late hour. In one girl's dorm, two friends shared whispered gossip and giggles. Creaks coming from Ilehana's room implied at least two people were very much awake. One small boy nearly walked straight into Blaze as she wandered the corridors, fortunately he was almost sleepwalking and he didn't see her dart into a shadowed doorway. She didn't want a fuss that might alert her quarry to her presence. The boy disappeared into a bathroom.  
  
By the time she first heard a suspicious noise everything else had finally gone quiet. Someone was creeping up the stairs. Someone small, quite light, and obviously used to the comings and goings of the dormitory floors of the mansion. Whosoever it was stopped at every floor, every junction and corner, probably hiding in the very arrangements of shadows that Blaze was using. Blaze was surprised, for a child this thief was quite good. But against her, it wouldn't do them any good.  
  
She waited round a corner on the fourth floor, staff quarters. The thief had been building up their nerve, starting with simple snatches from fellow students. Storm was the most recent victim, which meant that a less forgiving, more jumpy member of staff was probably the target tonight. Blaze had already adjusted the lighting, the darker the better, for she had to catch the thief red-handed or they would deny everything.  
  
Pinning herself back against the wall, she quieted her breathing. Shuffle, shuffle, the child was creeping down the corridor. Listening carefully, Blaze heard a door handle click. Nightcrawler's room, it had to be, there hadn't been time for the kid to get any further down the corridor. The door clicked shut again almost silently, but not silently enough.  
  
Five minutes later a small, blond, spectacled boy came back through Nightcrawler's door backwards. Ever so carefully he pulled the door shut, before turning round. Blaze smiled down at him and he winced. Not saying a word, she twitched her head towards the stairs, letting him go first down to the rec. room.  
  
The big screen TV was on, some crummy documentary about mummies in Egypt. Blaze turned to the boy.  
  
"Have you seen the remote, I can't be doing with intellectual stuff at this hour?"  
  
The boy looked from Blaze to the TV, blinked once and the set went dark and silent.  
  
"Cool." Blaze smiled. "Have a seat." The child sat, as did Blaze. "Now, what have you got in your pocket there?"  
  
Reluctantly he dived into his trouser pocket, pulling out a small packet.  
  
"I don't even know what they are, but he didn't have much in there to take..."  
  
Blaze opened the packet and emptied the contents onto her hand.  
  
"They are called rosary beads. Each bead is a prayer. Kurt will miss these a lot." She put them back in the packet carefully, and then put the packet on the table in front of them. "Where is everything else?"  
  
"Oh, I didn't take anything far. I didn't want to sell the stuff or anything. I was just..." The kid shrugged melodramatically, "Just bored I guess." He reached down the side of the sofa and pulled out a bracelet, Rogue's bracelet. "Its all down here, it's a big sofa."  
  
Blaze had to laugh, the boy was fantastic, all that stuff taken in the dead of night from people's rooms and hidden in the sofa they themselves sat on!  
  
"You will have to put it back, all of it." She tried to make her face stern, but it was difficult. "Its wrong to take stuff that isn't yours."  
  
"I know," He was pragmatic, "But there's nothing on TV this season, and I don't sleep."  
  
"Alright, here's the deal." Blaze thought on her feet, "You put all this stuff back by the morning, and promise never to steal again and I not only wont tell on you, but will teach you a game to keep you occupied at night time. How about it?"  
  
Intrigued the kid nodded. Blaze picked up her pack of cards from where it had fallen earlier that day.  
  
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"I just wanted to thank you Blaze, for getting my pendant returned to me." Storm spoke just slightly louder than she needed to, and the point was not lost on Wolverine.  
  
"So, Blaze, um..." He addressed the smug-looking young woman uncertainly.  
  
"Apology accepted, Logan. Don't worry about it." She smiled, and Logan sighed his relief. He could not be doing with apologies.  
  
"You gonna tell us who it was then?" Logan asked. Blaze shook her head.  
  
"There is an honour between most thieves. Just rest assured that it wont happen again."  
  
"Only most thieves, hey?" Logan and Blaze shared a grin. "Just make sure that it doesn't happen again, okay?" She nodded, and then went back to reading a book that Nightcrawler had leant her. The Professor was right; she had started at least to fit in around here. But still at the back of his mind Logan had a sneaking suspicion that Blaze might still find it difficult to cut off her old life just like that. Would they find themselves turning a newly armed criminal mutant out into the world whenever the Professor had finished with Blaze?  
  
"Can somebody please turn on the TV?" Xavier entered the room with Ilehana at his side. Storm obliged, with Bobby, Rogue and Scott also arriving in a hurry. In a poof! of purple smoke, Nightcrawler appeared on the windowsill. Changing the channel to the news, Storm stood back.  
  
"And so the headlines this lunchtime," The female newsreader announced to an intrigued audience and confused Blaze; why was the news so important? "For the second time in three months a mutant criminal has escaped from a specialist high security jail. Remy le Beau, also known as Gambit, escaped last night with the aid of two other unknown mutants" The pictures of a blue haired woman and a colossal man aiding a tall, slim man out of a cell were obviously from the security cameras in the jail. The images were cut short when the woman raised her hand at the camera. "le Beau is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Do not approach him. If you have seen these mutants, call the police incident room on..."  
  
"This is bad," Scott pointed out. "Do you think it could be related to Magneto's escape at all Professor?"  
  
"There is no way of telling right now Scott. But I suggest we keep our wits about us. If this is a new stage of Magneto's plan to start a human-mutant war, we can expect this Gambit to be quite dangerous."  
  
Logan liked the sound of this. Finally somethin' to do around here!  
  
"Do we know anything about this guy? What are his powers? Where has he come from?" The Wolverine was positively grinning with anticipation. Storm looked over to Blaze, wondering what the young woman was thinking to all this. Blaze was stood where she had been sitting. She had gone very pale, and her mouth was open like a beached fish gasping for air.  
  
"Blaze, are you alright?" Storm took a hesitant step towards the newcomer. If she was going to faint somebody needed to catch her.  
  
"Remy..." Blaze almost whispered the name, staring at the TV as the channel repeated the showing of the security tape. "I know that man. Its Remy..."  
  
Every person in the room stopped their private discussions and stared at the redhead. Storm had a feeling this girl had some serious explaining to do... 


	7. Scene 7

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Also thank you to my good friend Corrinth for the use of her creation Ilehana Xavier, aka Vixen.  
  
Scene Seven  
  
Cyclops and Wolverine lead the way down into the lower levels of the manor house, followed by the rest of the X-Men team. Blaze smiled thinly; obviously this was what these people lived for. Being heroes. Why else would they have bothered rescuing someone like her? She hoped that this well-oiled machine would work as well this time. That is, if they believed what she had to say.  
  
Unprovoked the team spread themselves evenly around the briefing room. Whilst Wolverine and Ilehana preferred to stand, the others sat leaving Blaze feeling uncomfortable and alone at the front of the room. She wondered briefly if they had had such a meeting before her own rescue. Bobby gave her an encouraging smile; at least she still had one friend in the room. Blaze tried in vain to find another friendly face amongst her audience, but they were all so serious, even Nightcrawler.  
  
"Now Blaze," The Professor had the remote for the large TV screen. Flicking it on he brought up the security footage from the earlier broadcast. In a moment of technological wizardry he zoomed the picture in. Three familiar scowling faces glared down at Blaze. "You say you know these people?" In the back of her mind, she felt him add his confidence in her. Then another, a stranger added,  
  
**Don't let them spook you, its just business. **  
  
**Ilehana? **  
  
**You expected somebody else? **  
  
Blaze had to smile. She did have friends here. The Vixen was right; this was only business to them. Time to let them know how much more it meant to her.  
  
Carefully for a moment Blaze studied the picture, then began to report like she hadn't done since Remy had started to trust her instincts more than his own...  
  
"Professor, could you zoom in some more on the woman without losing the resolution?" He did so, and the image of the white skinned- blue haired woman grew to gargantuan size. "This is Electra, I don't know her real name. She's a minion of a crime lord called Alessandro Jacobi. Her powers give her control of all electrical systems, security systems being her speciality. Professor? Her associate is called Crush." The face of the colossal man came up on the screen. "He's pretty much pure muscle, and also works for Jacobi."  
  
For a second she steeled herself, and then requested the third mutant's image of Xavier.  
  
"This is Remy le Beau, Gambit. He is most definitely not an associate of Jacobi's. I have known and worked with him, on and off, for six years, since I was sixteen years old. He is my best friend, he has saved my life more times than I can remember, and I his. These..." For a second she almost choked, but she forced herself to continue, "These people have been after him for a long time, Jacobi is intent on making Remy part of his organisation. Remy would have none of it; it's not his thing. They must have found out he was in prison and... And kidnapped him."  
  
Finally looking away from the screen and at the faces of the assembled X- Men, she nearly threw up. They were all staring at her like she had grown an extra head or something, even Bobby. She caught herself before she tried any further to convince them, don't make yourself out to be a complete idiot Blaze.  
  
"Kidnapped?" Logan raised a single eyebrow from the back of the room. Blaze knew what he was going to say before he opened his mouth. "From prison?"  
  
Blaze stuck her chin out stubbornly.  
  
"No prison could hold Remy le Beau unless he wanted to be there."  
  
"He's a thief yeah? Why would he, or anybody else, wanna be in jail?" Logan's sarcastic tone was not just irritating Blaze.  
  
"Give Blaze a break Logan." Bobby suggested angrily. "You can't expect her to have all the answers."  
  
"Actually I do." Blaze sniped back at them both. "About two years ago it got to the stage where Jacobi was prepared to threaten both Gambit's and my own life to get Gambit through his doors for good. Rem decided it would be best if he disappeared for a while, 'til Jacobi calmed down. I didn't even know where he had gone." There was a sting in her voice that showed how much that decision had hurt Blaze. "What better place for a thief to hide out than a prison, especially a high security one? He must have got himself locked up for a reason."  
  
"Yeah, he's a criminal! Professor we're wasting our time, this has nothing to do with Magneto." Scott's head was pounding, a combination of hangover and too much shouting.  
  
"Perhaps, perhaps not Scott." Xavier wheeled closer to the screen where Gambit's picture still looked down on the room. Certainly this young man did not look best impressed with the situation, red-on-black eyes scowling.  
  
**He's not bad looking either, Dad... ** Ilehana added with a touch of humour, making him smile.  
  
"Professor?" Storm questioned, wondering what Xavier could possibly be smiling at. Quickly gathering his thoughts Xavier continued.  
  
"All I can say is that there are more enemies to our cause than just Magneto and his associates. If this mutant Jacobi were to threaten ordinary humans then we..."  
  
"Jacobi is human." Blaze had moved to the back of the room and was stood defensively with her arms folded.  
  
"What?" Scott couldn't follow this; something just wasn't making sense. He swore under his breath as the room swung manically, he only wanted to look at Blaze damn it!  
  
"He's human, but he employs both humans and mutants. He runs scams and operations all over the world, with bases in America and abroad. He used to be a member of the international Guild of Thieves, but he got thrown out somehow."  
  
"Now that's an achievement!" Bobby winced as Rogue elbowed him in the ribs, "What?"  
  
"So let me get this straight," If Scott didn't stop scowling soon, Blaze thought, his face would stick like that. "You want us to go after this guy to rescue an old boyfriend of yours who may or may not want to be rescued..."  
  
"To be honest Cyclops if I gave a damn about what you did with your time I'd have had you slammed up in rehab a long while ago!" Wolverine caught Ilehana's eye and grinned, this Blaze did have a backbone after all, and a sense of humour. "You wanted to know about Remy and I've told you." Rogue winced as Blaze's voice got louder. "And if the lot of you won't help me, won't trust me, the I'll go get him back myself! Sod you all!" Blaze turned to go, but Wolverine blocked her way.  
  
"You want help kid?" He smiled, "You got it. Count me in."  
  
"Logan." Charles Xavier said the name as a warning.  
  
Backed up by Wolverine, and feeling Vixen's interest in the back of her mind, Blaze played her trump card, not caring if it sounded like she was preaching.  
  
"You people are so caught up with your damned ideals you can't see what's under your own noses! You're so desperate to see mutants and humans cease their fighting, you don't think about what could happen afterwards. In the underworld, my world, humans and mutants already work together! Masterminds like Jacobi and powerful mutants like Electra are gathering power to themselves right now, waiting to pick up the pieces when the rest of you have stopped fighting! Forget your silly ideals, humans and mutants on the same side are capable of evil worse than you could ever image!" 


	8. Scene 8

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: All reviews are most welcome; its great to know someone somewhere is reading this...  
  
Scene Eight  
  
Remy le Beau scowled as he placed the tiny room. This was worse than the damned prison. Reaching one wall he spun dramatically, swirling his long brown trench coat out behind him. What was Jacobi's problem?  
  
There were two doors to the small room, but no windows. Both doors were steel lined and locked on the outside. The man called Gambit wondered how much of these precautions had been installed for his arrival alone. He already knew what lay behind the door to his right, it lead to a back alley doorway where a 'maintenance' truck had dropped him off following his 'escape' from the penitentiary. He did not think it would be too long before the second door opened and this game with Jacobi got underway.  
  
He was right, the door creaked open towards Remy, and a minion beckoned Remy through into a larger room. This too was windowless concrete, a larger waiting room than the one he had been confined to. Jacobi was taking no chances. Sentries lined a gantry above his head, humans armed with rifles and dressed in uniforms as though it was a government installation. Remy smirked; did Jacobi know how pointless those guns would be against him?  
  
"Remy my boy!" Jacobi himself came out of another door in the opposite wall. The large man was dressed in a well-fitted grey suit and shiny black shoes. No doubt he too was packing a gun. Humans. Coming towards Gambit the fellow criminal threw his arms open wide as if welcoming back a long lost brother.  
  
"Jacobi." Gambit acknowledged the man with a glare from his red-on-black eyes. The crime lord dropped his arms as if disappointed.  
  
"What Remy? Not pleased to see me? And after all I have done for you!"  
  
"Jacobi," Gambit replied in his thick New Orleans accent, "You have never done nothin' for me except give me a headache." Jacobi laughed heartily, and indicated to the door he had just come through.  
  
"Shall we move this to my office? Carla, bourbon." The secretary disappeared from the desk outside the door. Jacobi opened the office door and ushered the taller man inside.  
  
"What are we toastin'?" Gambit asked.  
  
"Why, your escape from prison of course! You're a free man Remy, a free man."  
  
Jacobi sat down heavily on the green leather chair behind his green-leather lined desk and flicked on his green-shaded desk lamp. There was carpet on the floor and luxurious wallpaper on the walls of this room. Over one wall, opposite the desk, flat computer screens flickered with images from all over Jacobi's secret compound. Again no windows, but two heavy wooden panelled doors. Gambit took a seat, wondering if Jacobi had a secretary with access to whisky behind both doors.  
  
A knock on the door and the secretary was back, complete with tray, two crystal glasses and a bottle of expensive looking bourbon. She lent over a little too far as she placed her load on the desk, and acknowledged a sly smile from Gambit with a wink. Jacobi finished rustling a pile of papers into a draw and smiled at Carla.  
  
"Excellent, my dear, excellent. Thank you so much." Remy never could figure out if Jacobi's English accent was real, or put on for effect. Surely there was very little else honest about this man. Gambit accepted the whisky glass, but didn't take a sip until Jacobi had downed his.  
  
"Now then, Remy." Jacobi paused briefly for effect. "Lets drop the pretence shall we? I would ask if you were grateful to be free from your incarceration, except we both know that the sentence was, on your behalf, voluntary."  
  
Slowly Gambit nodded. What did this guy want from him this time? He wasn't still obsessed with having Gambit sign up, was he? Meeting Jacobi's treacherous green eyes he wouldn't put anything past the overweight human.  
  
"You nearly had me fooled as well, Remy. It was a classy trick. I had searched everywhere, or rather my men had. We even went to the local Thieves' Guild HQ in New Orleans, but not a sign did we find. More whisky?"  
  
"No thanks." Gambit didn't like the idea of these scum creeping around his old haunting grounds, too many memories and too many secrets he could do without these people finding out. "So how'd you find me?"  
  
"A lovely young lady came to me. Well, when I say young she was a shape shifter so actually..." Jacobi shrugged with a grin as he poured two more glasses of whisky, "Here, live a little." He pushed a glass back to Remy. "She claimed to have executed a break-out of a high security prison and was selling information to any organisations that wanted to repeat the act. Information, it seems, is the new gold bullion. Even your little wench has been at it."  
  
Remy winced at the mention of Blaze, was she okay? Had Jacobi kept clear of her? It had been too long...  
  
"Anyway, this Mystique creature somehow knew we were looking for you. She'd seen your name on the prison manifest and got in touch. We had to wait a bit though, let the fuss from Mystique's operation die down. Still, I paid quite a bit for that information. You're worth a lot of money to me Remy le Beau."  
  
"Oh yeah?" Remy questioned, "How much?"  
  
"Half a million for the information alone. Plus a little more for bribing certain guards, training and equipping Electra and Crush, you know the type of thing..."  
  
Remy was flattered, half a million bucks was a lot to pay out with no guarantee of success. At the same time, it made him all the more uneasy, what did Jacobi have planned that made Gambit so important?  
  
"I'm building an army, Remy." Jacobi pressed a button on a remote, and the screens on the wall changed from boring images of the general comings and goings of the complex, to listings of names, numbers and ranks. Remy got out of his seat, downed the whisky and plonked the glass down on the desk. Going to the screens he squinted at the green lettering on black backgrounds. This was impressive, even by Jacobi's standards. "And I want you on my team. You'd be in good company."  
  
The screen directly in front of Gambit changed again. Pictures came up with names this time, Electra was there, and Crush. The Mysterious Mystique appeared as well, redhead with blue skin and cruel yellow eyes. Remy wondered how Jacobi had gotten her involved, and decided the half a million probably had a lot to do with it. There were humans as well; he knew Pierre Cardomé from Paris, and Sal van Hyre from Cape Town. His own picture was there too, with the others. Gambit turned back to Jacobi.  
  
"The best criminal minds and most accomplished thieves in the business, proven leaders and tacticians. There is a war brewing Remy, between mutants and humans, yet all the while we will be waiting, training, readying ourselves for power. Whilst the warring factions cause chaos, we will be reaping the rewards. In a tidal wave our associates will wash over the planet, taking control of key businesses, scientific institutions and even governments. It will be the biggest, most productive venture that my company has ever undertaken. And in eighteen months time, you and I and the rest of my chosen inner circle will be able to retire, completely untouchable, and watch the rest of man and mutant kind destroy themselves."  
  
Jacobi's idea certainly sounded impressive, and looking at the data that still scrolled through the screens he was close to being ready to undertake such a massive manoeuvre. There was only one problem. Gambit did not like nor trust Jacobi, he knew the guy would stab him in the back first chance he got. It would have to be worth more for Gambit to actually get involved. Jacobi sensed the younger man's refusal before Remy even opened his mouth.  
  
"You do realise Remy that this isn't really an offer. You join us, or you die. On the other hand, I'm not really worried about having to have you shot, I have a few more tricks up my sleeve to barter with for your loyalty."  
  
Privately Remy could only wish for Jacobi to try and shoot him. This conversation was getting boring. But on the other side all information was good information, especially if he could sell it at the right price.  
  
"Firstly boy, think about it. You are Thieves' Guild trained the same as I. You know a good deal when you smell one. A seat at the high table of an army command, my right hand man so to speak. Control of your own unit, the financial backing to pull off the scams and tricks you have always wanted to. A thirty percent cut off any profits you make. Eighteen months out of your life and you make more money than you could ever have dreamed of." Jacobi's voice grew husky with greed, knowing exactly where the other seventy percent profit would be going.  
  
"Gambit works alone." Remy replied shortly, turning away from the screens. Jacobi could keep his profits; his obsession with having Gambit work for him was getting creepy.  
  
"Except when Blaze is involved yes?" Remy had never heard Jacobi use Blaze's name before. The man was blatantly jealous that a thief as good as Remy would choose to work with another mutant rather than him. Jacobi usually preferred to call her whatever nasty names he could think of. "That would be point number two..."  
  
The screens changed again at a push of Jacobi's remote. Satellite surveillance pictures of a manor house appeared on three of the many screens.  
  
"Blaze and I had a run in not so long ago. She broke into my building on her never-ending quest for sellable information. Not totally her own good work I have to say, the kid on reception was new and was completely fooled by her smart outfit and the fact she knew that an employee of mine was expecting a visit from a lawyer."  
  
Gambit smiled, that was pure Blaze, cheeky and upfront, but well thought out none the less.  
  
"The receptionist has been dealt with of course. Anyway, Blaze was spotted, but she escaped. I had her followed, but she killed two of my men. The fire she started raged for two days, and very nearly lead to this very HQ being discovered..."  
  
If he expected sympathy, Jacobi got none. Instead a half-forgotten line reverberated around Remy's head **I've really messed up. It happened again... ** He hoped his old accomplice was okay. 


	9. Scene 9

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: All reviews most definitely welcome- please don't forget! : )  
  
Scene Nine  
  
Blaze left the room wishing that it wasn't so technical in the mansion's lower levels and she could slam a good old-fashioned door on the X-Men. As it was the doors simply whooshed open and closed again as she passed through. Most unsatisfying.  
  
"Hey, Blaze, wait up!" Rogue's voice called out. Blaze didn't wait, but did at least acknowledge the Southern girl and her boyfriend with a brief pirouette before continuing towards the lift. Friends, Blaze thought vehemently, who needs 'em.  
  
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Back in the briefing room, the older and supposedly wiser X-Men debated Blaze's outburst. Was she right? Was their cause naive and uninformed? He might not want to admit it, but Charles Xavier had a nasty feeling that the young woman might have a point. But, like any good leader he would not voice an opinion until his team had had their own say.  
  
"She does have a point." Logan, never shy of speaking his mind for once also had justification for his remark. "Where do we draw the line between fighting to stop humans and mutants fightin', and preventing them from working together for evil?"  
  
"The clouds make no difference at night - evil is evil." Ilehana backed him up with her simple, wolf-based philosophy. "Blaze is pack now, at least to me. And in the pack, we never let a cry for help go unanswered."  
  
"But its not our problem," Cyclops butted in grumpily. "We've got enough to do without worrying about some thief who has escaped from jail. If it does turn out to be something to do with Magneto, then we can deal with it then but..."  
  
"You don't believe her then Scott?" Ororo Munroe didn't want to judge him; he'd had a hard time of life since Jean's sacrifice. But Storm knew that Blaze had found it difficult to talk about this Remy le Beau. Blaze may be charismatic, but there was also a sensitive side to her that Ororo could relate to. She didn't like to see her friend suffer.  
  
"It's not that I don't believe her," Scott ran his fingers back through his thick chestnut hair and looked hard at Storm through his tinted sunglasses. "But if we start helping out just any mutant, or human for that matter, who turns up at our door, where will it stop, y'know? How many more sacrifices will we have to make?"  
  
Scott's meaning was clear. If helping Blaze meant the loss of another X-Man like Jean, would any of them be prepared to get involved? If they had known the price of their mission to Alkali Lake, would they have gone at all? For a moment all of the X-Men were silent, lost in their own thoughts.  
  
"May I say a word?" Asked Nightcrawler, ever so hesitantly. At Xavier's nod, he continued. "If we are not the ones to help our friend Blaze, and this man Gambit, then who will? And if the price is set high, then at least like Jean we will have died fighting a battle that is just and right."  
  
Again for a short moment the X-Men were lost in their own thoughts. Xavier reached out telepathically for his two youngest team members before addressing his precious X-Men.  
  
"Bobby and Rogue agree with Kurt," He did not add that Blaze was laid on her bed crying like a betrayed fifteen year old, nor that she was plotting how to accomplish a rescue mission from a well-guarded institution herself. "As do I. We could wait for the police to find Remy le Beau, but if Jacobi has powerful mutants on his side, then their chances of success are slim. I cannot risk the lives of innocent people in a task we have turned down, no matter how scared we are of losing another of our friends, our family. Make what preparations you can, I will have Blaze brief us on the facility and on Jacobi's forces in an hour."  
  
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"Blaze, you in there?" Scott was still smarting slightly from the Professor's decision to help the mutant. Part of him knew that it was the right thing to do; it was his job, his duty. But the rest of him had an overwhelming desire to stuff the lot of 'em and go hide at Diego's. Could anyone blame him if he didn't want to play heroes anymore?  
  
"Yeah..." A subdued voice from behind her bedroom door. Once upon a time, before she had moved in with him, this had been Jean's room at the school. Scott shook his head, don't think about her, don't think about anything. Resolutely he pushed the door open to find Blaze lying like a child on her belly on her bed.  
  
"Are you okay?" Despite his own woe-begotten attitude, Scott still couldn't keep the concern from his voice.  
  
"Do you care?" Blaze replied tartly.  
  
"Yeah." He didn't know who was the most surprised, Blaze or himself. Well, perhaps you do learn somethin' new everyday...  
  
"I'm fine." She sniffed, then rolled over and sat up. For the first time Scott took a look around the room. Fresh flowers from the garden sat in pretty vases on the windowsill. The curtains billowed gently in the breeze from the open window. The bed was half unmade, unmatched shoes lay abandoned where they had been kicked off, and several books were stacked haphazardly next to the bed. The room felt alive, natural. It was almost like Blaze had been here all her life, not a mere month and a half since she had moved up from the infirmary. For the first time Scott saw just a snippet of what every one else seemed to like about Blaze. She may be independent, impulsive and fiery, but she had something, a homely, friendly streak running right through her. Scott smiled, and to Blaze he looked about ten years younger.  
  
"The Professor sent me." Cyclops was back to business, the organised team- leader of the X-Men. "He's decided we are gonna help you."  
  
Blaze grinned, whilst she had never witnessed the X-Men truly in action, she had faith in her friends. And she had had no idea how to carry out a full-blown raid on Jacobi's complex by herself. Sneaking about in there was one thing, getting Remy out would be entirely another. Scott acknowledged her infective smile with one of his own before continuing.  
  
"He's asked if you could give us a breakdown on what you think will be the best course of action in a hour?"  
  
"Best make it two," Blaze also swung into business mode, "And do you have any form of computer program I can use to generate blue prints and architectural plans?"  
  
"Sure, I'll show you myself," Cyclops turned to exit the room and Blaze followed him, letting the door slam behind her in the draught from the open window that once upon a time a young doctor called Jean had so loved the view from...  
  
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Scott twitched again unthinkingly, folding his arms against his body to hide his slightly trembling hands. He just couldn't keep his mind on the task or his eyes on the computer screen as Blaze worked. If only he could have a drink, then he'd be able to relax, he'd stop worrying about loosing another friend, stop thinking about Jean...  
  
Blaze ignored Cyclops as she worked frantically, putting all she knew about Jacobi's HQ down into a complex 3D plan of the building. Everything had to go on there, individual offices and workstations, security systems, door locks, air ducts. She shivered, not relishing the prospect of spending more time in the air con system, but there was nothing for it. Somehow in the meantime Cyclops had gathered himself again, and was squinting at the screen.  
  
"Is this gonna be accurate?"  
  
"Yes." Blaze was confident in her own abilities.  
  
"How accurate? I mean, I don't really want to turn down a corridor and find myself locked a closet..."  
  
"Its damn accurate." Blaze snapped "Not only did I spend a day crawling through air ducts and dodging cameras not so very long ago, I also have a photographic memory. I won't let anyone get left behind."  
  
That struck a nerve. Scott visibly recoiled as though she had slapped him across the face. She didn't apologise either, as she got up and walked to the door of the briefing room and left.  
  
Five seconds later she was back, smiling.  
  
"I've asked Bobby to get us something to drink with too much caffeine and sugar in it, and some snacks. I don't know about you but I'm starved."  
  
"Thanks," Scott knew she was plying him with caffeine to keep his mind on the job. Sitting back down, Blaze carried on speaking as she continued with her work.  
  
"When Rem told me he was leaving, after Jacobi threatened my life to get Gambit to join him, he was convinced it was the only way to protect me, save me. He didn't realise how betrayed, how abandoned it would make me feel. I lost it, after he left. I didn't see the point in anything anymore. I didn't work. I spent all my money on alcohol until there was nothing left. Even my most unsavoury 'friends' gave up on me once the money had gone...  
  
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I can imagine what you're going through Scott. Then again, maybe I can't, after all I was pretty sure that somewhere Gambit was at least alive. And he and I, we're not lovers like you and Jean..."  
  
"You're not?" Scott was surprised.  
  
"Only when drunk, it's bad for business." Blaze smiled secretly to herself. "Anyway, I'm only telling you this to warn you. You've got good friends here, and you and I may not have gotten off to the best start, but I'd help you any way I can. Don't let it get to the state I was in before you quit drinking... Don't leave it 'til it's too late, 'til you've killed someone."  
  
The door slid open and Bobby and Rogue appeared, laden with trays brimming with goodies. Cyclops was impressed.  
  
"You guys trying to feed an army or something?" He asked. Rogue laughed melodically.  
  
"You obviously ain't seen Blaze eat. It's amazin'!"  
  
"I have a stupidly fast metabolism, it's not my fault!" Blaze chipped in, "But if it means I can eat my own body weight in chocolate and not gain a pound, who cares!"  
  
I dunno- this chapter has taken far too long to write...Oh well, on with the next one, and hopefully it will be a little easier on my poor mushed up brain cells...  
  
What's the matter with it? It works well! Nice end - on a high note. I like it. 


	10. Scene 10

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: I'd like to take this opportunity to beg copiously for reviews! All comments are welcome...  
  
Scene Ten  
  
"So how did you meet Gambit, Blaze?" Rogue asked as she and Bobby helped Blaze and Scott to organize themselves for the briefing. For a moment Blaze paused, leaning back from the computer screen and thinking. That had been a very long time ago. Realising that not only Rogue, but also Bobby and Scott were waiting for her answer, Blaze snapped out of her reminiscence.  
  
"It was in Paris, about six months after I ran away from home, after discovering I was a mutant. I was sixteen, and already a talented pickpocket. I was in a bar, getting hassled by three French boys. You know, 'Voulez vous couche avec moi cest soir?' I left but they followed and it got ugly. I lost control of my powers and killed them.  
  
"What I hadn't realised was that thirty seconds later a young man called Remy le Beau came round the corner to rescue me. He'd been in the same bar and hadn't liked the look of the three boys. When I'd left and the boys had followed me, he'd finished his drink and left too. But when he got to the alley and found three charred bodies and me unconscious (That's what happens every time I use my powers like that,) he didn't freak out. A mutant too, he saw that I'd lost control, that I couldn't have done anything else. He didn't dare leave me for the authorities to find, so he carried me three blocks to his hotel. And the rest, as they say, is history."  
  
Bobby and Rogue shared a smile, recognising that Gambit meant as much to Blaze as they did to each other. Scott frowned though, no wonder Blaze was so scared of her powers, by his count that was six people at the very least she'd fried. The doors to the briefing room slid open once more and the Professor rolled in, followed by Storm and Ilehana.  
  
"All ready?" Xavier asked, and both Blaze and Scott nodded. There was a poof! of blue smoke to announce Nightcrawler's arrival, whilst the door slid open and closed one more time to admit the Wolverine, cigar in hand. Blaze flicked a button on the computer and the larger screen whirled into life.  
  
"This is Jacobi's HQ, the centre for both his legitimate financial consultation business operations and his criminal world." Blaze said, as a 3D map of a huge building turned and twisted on the screen to let the X-Men see as much of it as possible. "It's a glass fronted building about two miles North from where you picked me up."  
  
Several of the X-Men nodded, concentrating. The view changed to an overhead plan view.  
  
"Essentially, it is two buildings run on two separate computer and security systems. I doubt that the majority of the workers in the finance company even know about the rest of the building. From the reception," Blaze used a laser pointer to indicate the large open plan room with reception desk, stairs to each side and a balcony running all the way around for the first floor. "There are two sets of doors on each side, on each floor, leading to the offices. Upstairs, the central double doors leads to the primary security office. Downstairs, the double doors lead into the heart of the building, computer mainframe, central heating, electric workings, air conditioning, mops, buckets and brushes."  
  
At a nod from Blaze, Cyclops took over.  
  
"Professor, would it be possible for you and Cerebro to get an X-Man into the offices? To convince one of the workers to leave his office unlocked, tell security that whoever we send in isn't anything unusual and have the receptionists accept whatever we tell them?"  
  
"Of course Scott, glad to be of use." Xavier smiled genuinely and Wolverine grinned, it was good for the old guy to get some fun.  
  
**Don't write me off just yet, Logan... **  
  
**Wouldn't dream of it, Boss. **  
  
Blaze took over the explanations again, clicking a button and bringing up some blue lines to overlap the bright green ones that were the building's walls.  
  
"These are the air ducts. Two loop systems running through the same control unit. There is a grill in every room that is just large enough for a small but very determined person to crawl through. Whoever the Professor helps into the building will have to climb inside one of the ducts and crawl to the maintenance room on the ground floor- silently. Scott has enforced on me that we have as little impact on the normal workers as possible."  
  
"Ilehana, think you could handle it? Perhaps as a cat or something?" Scott asked, and Ilehana nodded.  
  
"Leave it with me."  
  
"You should then be able to hack into the systems and tamper with just enough of the security to let us in without alerting anyone. There are security cameras in that room, but they are focused on the doors at the front and rear of the room." Blaze zoomed in her plan to show that room in detail. "There is a blind spot just by both the mainframe and air con units. Whoever fitted this security system wasn't very good."  
  
Ilehana grinned, this would be fun. "Then what?"  
  
"When I was there last, you could have slipped into the second air con loop, the one that serves the criminal side of the building. But I've a feeling that they will have put a block of some sort there by now, I know I would have. So you will have to stay put and hold things from there. When it comes to getting out, there is a funnel leading to the roof that with the right equipment you should have no trouble climbing."  
  
Ilehana nodded, already planning her equipment list and smarting slightly that she wouldn't be more directly involved in the action. Still, somebody had to be the responsible one. Again, Scott took over the plan.  
  
"When Ilehana has gained control of the computers, she will freeze the frames on the two security cameras in the alley to the right of the building. They are what caught Blaze last time, so it's important they are disabled." He shot Blaze a glance through his shades, and she smiled to let him know there were no hard feelings. "That is how Blaze will get in this time, with one other X-Man," Blaze didn't miss the fact that Scott had almost called her an X-Man. "They will then head for the second computer room, again through the air con system."  
  
"You up for it Rogue?" Blaze asked her friend. "I know Scott's not keen on it being you, but I need someone small." Blaze didn't add that she too had wanted to take somebody else on this dangerous part of the mission. It didn't seem fair that the youngest member of the group should have possibly the worst part of the task. But Storm was the only other person small enough to fit through the ducts, and Scott had told Blaze that she was claustrophobic. "The vent we will be going in through is at a junction of the ground and first floor air con loops, about ten feet up. If you boost me up, I can reach it from the ground and drop a rope for you to climb. But I wont be able to reach it on my own."  
  
"Sure," Rogue shrugged as if it was nothing to her, but also gulped and reached out for Bobby's hand.  
  
"Good. Once we are in the second floor computer room, we can free up the parts of security that aren't accessible from Ilehana's position. Namely that's the roof, where there is a helipad." Blaze looked to Cyclops again. Ilehana addressed her father telepathically.  
  
**Working well together aren't they? **  
  
**Humm. So it seems. ** It was almost an agreement, but more of a reprimand for not paying full attention. Ilehana just smiled.  
  
"The rest of us will land the jet at Blaze's signal." Scott continued. "We don't move until Blaze and Rogue have located Gambit. Then it's in and out, quick as possible. No messing about okay, Logan?"  
  
"Mess about? Me?" Logan grinned and Scott ignored him. Storm cleared her throat to speak.  
  
"What about the people in the other part of the building, how do we stop them getting involved?"  
  
"The two sections of the building are divided by a 'lockdown' corridor." Blaze answered. "This runs on both levels, with connecting stairs. Doors on both sides of the building are controlled by computer, and are blast-proof. The office side doors will be under Ilehana's control, and the others Rogue's and mine. We will have to synchronise the lockdown, leaving it 'til the last minute and make sure that nobody gets locked actually in the corridor. That should act as enough of a barrier to keep the ordinary folk safe."  
  
Storm nodded and the Professor looked most impressed. Wolverine was less so.  
  
"So what type of resistance can we be lookin' at? Just those mutants from the prison, or what?"  
  
Blaze shook her head.  
  
"When I was last there, there were two patrols of twenty-five men each, armed with hand guns and rifles. If Rogue and I can lock the door to the barracks on the second floor, you will only have the duty patrol to deal with."  
  
"Sounds good," Wolverine slammed one knuckle into the palm of his other hand "And the mutants?" He growled.  
  
"Crush is strong, very strong. But that's it. If Scott's ranged attack can knock him out, he won't be a problem. Electra is the one to worry about, she's fast and agile, and if she hits you it's like getting struck with a cattle prod set on five thousand volts. In other words, it hurts like hell." Blaze grimaced.  
  
"Sounds like you've had experience." Logan acknowledged appreciatively.  
  
"She's got a bigger crush on Gambit than Jacobi, and a girl's gotta defend her man." Blaze smiled.  
  
"Anybody else?" Storm questioned, not wanting any surprises.  
  
"I'm not sure. There was other offices set up when I was there last, but I didn't see anyone. Then again, I didn't see anything to suggest that they were planning to bust Gambit, so anything's possible."  
  
"Including Gambit being swayed by this Jacobi? Being grateful enough to not want rescuing?" Logan asked.  
  
For a moment Blaze only wanted to deny it. Then she remembered something, a bargaining chip if Jacobi had ever wanted one. Could it be possible? Would Remy betray her? 


	11. Scene 11

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: All reviews are most definitely welcome. I'd really like to know that people were reading this!  
  
Scene Eleven  
  
Jacobi watched Gambit's face very carefully as he pulled the next rabbit out of his proverbial hat. The image of the manor house still glinted on the monitor.  
  
"Blaze was found, rescued if you will, by a group of vigilante mutants under the control of a powerful telepath named Charles Xavier. These images you see now come from a military associate of mine. The government have been keeping a very close eye on the headquarters of Xavier, this mansion in Westchester, New York. The cover is that it runs as a school for gifted children. In actual fact, the vigilantes who call themselves the X-Men police mutant activity the world over. They aim to control all mutant activity, and will take serious action against mutants who use their powers to do harm..."  
  
Gambit scowled. Vigilante mutants, a mutant police force with their own agenda...  
  
"Blaze is with 'em?"  
  
Jacobi flicked a button again, and more images joined the satellite view of the mansion. Surveillance photographs showing individuals, mutants, in the grounds of the mansion. Gambit reached out and touched the screen with a gloved index finger. Blaze, in every picture his old friend stood. In one she was laughing with a girl with white streaks in her hair. Another showed her talking anxiously with a blue-skinned man with a tail. In yet another, a young, blond tall guy was walking by Blaze's side. Jacobi smiled, and came to stand by Remy's side.  
  
"At first I thought Xavier meant to act as judge and jury for our young friend. She certainly has caused enough damage with her powers for him to warrant it. But so far, he has not harmed her. My feelings are that Xavier has the measure of her; he knows she's too much of a coward to run away from him. And in the meantime, whilst his mutants toy with her friendship, her trust, Xavier is learning more and more about our underworld. Learning more about the truly dangerous mutants, ones who would object to his vigilante actions. Mutants with more reason to fear his X-Men, mutants with dark, dark histories..."  
  
Remy turned away from the screen, he had seen enough. Blaze had betrayed him. She had joined with people who would want him dead. Whilst Blaze may have killed men, it had never really been her fault no matter how much she could not forgive herself. Not every mutant had lack of control to blame for certain untimely deaths...  
  
Jacobi smiled, content. Gambit was buying this hook, line and sinker. Now for the prize move.  
  
"Remy my boy, there is one more thing I would like to offer you." There was pain in those red-on-black eyes, so much pain. Ah well, things are as they must be. "Come with me, I think I can make your day..."  
  
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They left the office the same way they had come in, back into the atrium. Crossing the ground floor, Jacobi made for the nearest set of stairs up to the gantry level with gambit following. As they neared the steps, another office door opened and another man came towards them.  
  
"Jacobi, Sir." The man's voice was thick with a French accent and too many cigarettes. Noticing Gambit, he stopped in his tracks. "Gambit?"  
  
"Bonjour Pierre. Ca va?"  
  
"Oui, ca va." Pierre did not seem very pleased to see Remy. "What are you doing here ami?"  
  
"Pierre, don't ask ridiculous questions." Jacobi was impatient. "What do you want?" Reluctantly Pierre turned his attention back to Jacobi.  
  
"This Mystique, she say we take on too much with the X-Men. She say we get more troops in, in case they come. Why would they come 'ere?"  
  
"For Remy of course. And it shouldn't be too long now before they try. I trust Mystique, Pierre and so should you. See to the troops, and get Sal to order more weapons. Has Electra finished with the tamper-alert system for the computers?"  
  
"Oui, sir. She has fini."  
  
"Good. Well," Jacobi near snapped at his accomplice, "Get on with it."  
  
Gambit watched the Frenchman leave, and then turned to follow Jacobi up the stairs.  
  
"They will come for me?"  
  
"Of course. Blaze is infatuated my dear Remy. She will want you rescued. And as for the X-Men, what a coup it would be for them to take out the legendary Remy le Beau. But, with your help, they will not succeed."  
  
"I wont hurt Blaze." Gambit frowned, wondering how it had all come to this.  
  
"Not even if she, and her new associates, threaten your life? My dear Remy don't make promises you cannot keep." Jacobi threw open a door, and flicked a light switch. "Welcome to my pride and joy."  
  
Walking in past Jacobi, Gambit took a good look around this new room. A laboratory, with computerised workstations and white walls and tiled floors. It looked very impressive. At the far end a strange table, like the stainless steel ones in mortuaries, lay. Underneath it protected by Perspex sliding doors, six pumps attached six empty vials to six plastic flexes. Four of the flexes disappeared into the table itself. Two ran out, guided by long, steel, jointed arms ending in sockets that would fit needles. Approaching the table, Gambit could see that where the other flexes met the metal, further sockets were positioned that could be raised and lowered as the needles required. There were enough leather straps to pin down even such a large mutant as Crush. At one end, a Perspex shielded computer terminal seemed to control the operation. Underneath it, a motor was housed to drive the six pumps. It was like something out of a horror movie.  
  
"This is my Mutation Accelerator. A handy device; built by my own scientists in Japan and shipped here especially. It runs on a simple principle, there are certain chemical compounds known to induce genetic mutation. Radioactive isotopes, that type of thing. By pumping precise amounts of these chemicals into certain parts of a mutant's body, their own innate genetic instability reacts with the compound to enhance their special abilities." Jacobi ran his chubby fingers over the stainless steel surface almost lovingly. "It is unfortunate that it doesn't work on normal humans. It seems that it requires a certain level of both immune deficiency and genetic instability that humans like me just don't possess. But for you, Remy, it could give you powers beyond your wildest dreams..."  
  
"What do you know of my dreams, Jacobi?" Where had he seen this instrument before? Had he dreamt it? A nightmare, perhaps? Had someone died? Gambit couldn't place the image, nor why the fear on seeing this apparatus had not seemed like his own. Jacobi laughed heartily, sending shivers up Gambit's spine.  
  
"I know you dream the same as I do. You dream of power, control, wealth, and of knowing exactly where you stand." Jacobi placed an arm around the taller man's shoulders amicably. "And I alone can offer you those things, my friend. I alone." 


	12. Scene 12

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: All reviews are most definitely welcome, so please don't forget...  
  
Scene Twelve  
  
There was a single but firm knock on the door. A voice like a thousand voices all tied to the same tongue answered the request.  
  
"Enter."  
  
Remy le Beau obliged, coming into the small room from the atrium in a billow of brown trench coat and a wave of brewing anger.  
  
"Are you Mystique?" He questioned of the blue woman perched evocatively on the desk in front of him, New Orleans accent ringing around the room.  
  
"I am."  
  
"You know the X-Men?"  
  
"Get out," The woman of a million faces told her companions, the thieves named Crush and Sal van Hyre. The two men, one mutant and one human, did as they were told. Only when the door shut behind them did Gambit get the answer he was looking for.  
  
"Yes, I know the X-Men." Mystique hissed, as though it were some vile secret. "And I know why you are here Remy le Beau."  
  
She stood up, came towards him. Nearly as tall as he was, Mystique met Gambit's red-on-black eyes with her own cold yellow ones, and smiled. Unconsciously Gambit reached into his coat pocket, finding comfort in the pack of cards secreted there.  
  
"I prefer Gambit."  
  
"It's a gambit to take on the X-Men." She was barely six inches away from him; he could feel her breath as she spoke. "You want to know if we can beat them, if they come for you?"  
  
"Can we?" Did he want to fight with this dangerous woman?  
  
"Jacobi is a fool, but he is not stupid. We are well prepared. More than that I cannot tell you." She turned swiftly, leaving Remy unsure whether to recoil or follow. She certainly was a strange one...  
  
"And Blaze? If I could convince her to leave them?"  
  
"Its too late for the girl, Xavier already has her."  
  
Gambit's heart sank. Of all the things Blaze and he had fought together, they were defeated by a telepath, by a force from which they had no defence.  
  
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"Blaze, the Professor wants to see you." Rogue said, knocking on Blaze's door. It opened revealing Blaze dressed in the tight-fitting black X-Men uniform. Running her hands around the collar she freed her reams of red curls from the outfit, frowning.  
  
"I cannot believe you people wear this stuff!"  
  
"Lookin' good Blaze." Logan, passing with cigar in hand, grinned appreciatively at the slender young woman. She pulled a face at him, before turning back to Rogue who was smiling.  
  
"It does look good on you..."  
  
"You too, sugah." Blaze replied in a fair imitation of Rogue's southern drawl. "Where's the Professor then?"  
  
"He's in Cerebro, come on I'll take you."  
  
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Bobby didn't feel so much like an Iceman when he turned into one of the lower level corridors to find Rogue and Blaze coming towards him, looking stunning in their matching uniforms. The two girls were of a height, one with brown hair tied back apart from two white streaks, the other with a mane of loose red curls.  
  
"Hey Bobby! Whatcha think of Blaze's uniform?" His girlfriend, damn he was lucky! He rapped an arm around Rogue's tiny waste before glancing at Blaze.  
  
"Looks good, Blaze."  
  
"It feels like I can't breathe," Blaze complained.  
  
"Yeah," Bobby answered concentrating very hard on where he was looking. "It's like that at first, but you get used to it."  
  
"Like you've been wearing it forever hey Bobby?" Rogue laughed. "We gotta go sugah, the Professor's expectin' us."  
  
As they left, turning down another corridor towards Cerebro, Bobby could completely appreciate the breath-stopping effect of the uniforms...  
  
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"Blaze," The Professor greeted the young woman as she entered the Cerebro machine for the first time. She could almost feel Xavier's power in the air around her, like the tingling that tickles your neck before a thunderstorm. "This is a dark hour for the X-Men, I hope you can understand this."  
  
"Professor?"  
  
"You have exposed a naivety that I had not considered in what we do here." He felt her shame, she hadn't meant to... "You don't need to worry, I'm not upset with you. But it does bring into question where we can draw the line between acting and not acting in the future." He smiled at her, and she understood. He was still grieving Jean, and now with this new mission his very morals were being called into question. Had he blinded himself, with his ideals of humans and mutants living together, to the idea that they would themselves work together for greater evil than either alone was capable of? Taking a deep breath, Blaze interrupted the Professor's musings.  
  
"There is something else, Professor." He looked up at her keenly. Blaze steeled herself to continue. "In the briefing, when I said I was not sure whether Gambit would want to be rescued, or if Jacobi could buy his loyalty, I remembered something. I don't know why I had forgotten it, perhaps I blocked it out..."  
  
"Perhaps." The Professor considered, "What is it?"  
  
"A machine, of Jacobi's. Its is supposed to amplify mutations, boost individual mutant's powers, I saw the plans so..."  
  
Charles Xavier frowned hard.  
  
"That is a powerful tool, so many mutants could be bought with the offer of more power..." They both knew he was thinking not only of Gambit, but also of his precious X-Men. "Has he used it yet?"  
  
"He's tried." Blaze swallowed, closing her eyes to try and shut out the memory. "I don't think it was perfected. It killed a mutant."  
  
"But he has had time since then..." The Professor was silent for a moment, thinking. "We will deal with this machine when we come to it Blaze. Our first priority is still to get Gambit out of Jacobi's compound and back to the mansion."  
  
Blaze was visibly relieved. Whist she felt Xavier had every right to know about the mutation accelerator, she hadn't wanted him to change to whole mission, risk Gambit, for the sake of it.  
  
"There is one more thing before you set off, Blaze." Xavier spoke calmly. "I want you to have faith in yourself today. Trust yourself, and you may surprise yourself. You know Gambit and the true potential of your own mutant powers better than anyone else. Take care, and don't worry, I wont be so far away..." 


	13. Scene 13

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: Please don't forget to review...Not that I'm desperate for feedback or anything here!  
  
Scene Thirteen  
  
The charging whir of the black jet made the windowpanes of the mansion shake. As is rose up out of the ground like a demonic creature, children ran to the windows in excitement. Charles Xavier watched through their young and innocent eyes, confined to Cerebro in readiness to help his X- Men. As the great blackbird rose, glinting in the hazy morning light, he hoped beyond hope that by the time these precious children were grown the need for such a tool was long past.  
  
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Mystique strode confidently around the laboratory; she could almost feel at home here. Palmtop computer in hand she tapped away, storing information for reporting to Magneto later. From the moment Jacobi had offered her so much money for information on Gambit, this had been too easy. And now, after only a month she was almost ready to leave Jacobi and his cronies to their pathetic activities, taking both her money and Jacobi's most well guarded secret back to the Brotherhood of Mutants.  
  
She knew she was being watched. There were cameras everywhere in this concrete shell. But there was little Jacobi could do to stop her working, she had made herself too invaluable for that. No one else could have trained Electra and Crush so well that they had little difficulties in getting Gambit out of prison. No one else had been able to come so close to getting the mutation accelerator ready for action. This had started out as a simple cash-making expedition, a hobby of her own devising whilst she had free time on her hands. But now, now she had not only the plans Jacobi's machine, and a long list of possible useful mutant contacts; Electra and Crush were disgruntled employees mere words away from leaving Jacobi for the Brotherhood...  
  
...Now to convince Gambit that he belonged with the Brotherhood of Mutants too...  
  
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Remy stalked his office like a caged tiger. He couldn't settle to anything. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end, his spine tingled. Something was brewing, he could almost hear it. On Jacobi's orders the mercenary troop presence in the building had been doubled. Endlessly ordinary humans pounded around the atrium practicing meaningless drills and giving Remy a headache. There was no peace here.  
  
But he had no place else to go. In limbo, he was waiting for Blaze to betray him, lead the X-Men to him. Running his fingers through his thick mop of red-brown hair he grimaced. Trapped like an animal, between an old enemy he thought he could handle, and an old friend he could no longer trust.  
  
The door handle turned behind him, the catch clicking in the frame. Mystique came in ever so quietly, walked over to Gambit, and wrapped her long blue arms around his neck. Whispering into his ear she told him of another way. No Jacobi. No humans. No mind-games. Fight against Jacobi and all like him, mild-mannered manipulative humans, judging mutants as fools good for nothing but as mindless soldiers. Fight against the X-Men, against their wish to control all mutants. Fight against Xavier and have his revenge against the mutant who has stolen Blaze from him...  
  
Gambit swallowed, eyes wide. Mystique's provocative words, the closeness of her, her breath on his neck, it was all too much. Was she right? Was there another way out of this?  
  
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On board the X-Men jet, Blaze braced herself against the sudden acceleration; she had never been on any vehicle as fast as this one. At the helm Storm took a sideways glance at Cyclops. Was he going to hold up through this? Scott Summers gripped the co-pilot controls gently, concentrating entirely on the read-out displays around him. In the back of his mind, he could almost hear Jean's voice, telling him that he could do this, that she loved him, and that she'd never really leave him...  
  
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Less than an hour later, the jet touched down almost silently at Storm's command. Using the cover of an abandoned warehouse badly damaged and made roofless by a recent fire, they would wait here until Jacobi's compound's helipad was secured. It was fast approaching noon. Ilehana double checked her equipment, and then snapped the large briefcase shut. It was time for action; she had an hour until the most of the office staff would leave for their lunch break. She needed to access the building before then for their cover story to work, and she was a ten-minute walk away.  
  
Standing up in the isle of the jet, she met Wolverine's eyes briefly.  
  
**Be careful. ** She told him tenderly, telepathically.  
  
**You too. ** He replied, well used to mental conversations with her.  
  
"Guess I'll see you all later." She smiled at the team; glad she didn't have to wait much longer before seeing some action. Tugging her smart jacket straight and picking up her briefcase she disembarked thinking **Oh, and Blaze, give this Jacobi a few lumps for me? **  
  
**Absolutely. ** Blaze replied adamantly. The Vixen smiled to herself and was gone.  
  
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Vixen pulled her long hair down over her right ear, hiding the tiny earpiece that allowed her to communicate directly with the jet and Blaze and Rogue. She could use her telepathic abilities, but the others wouldn't be able to reach her if they needed too. No such precautions were needed to talk to her father though.  
  
**You ready Dad? **  
  
**Of course. ** He was already concentrating hard, she could tell.  
  
"**I'm going in.**" Mentally and vocally she warned her father and the waiting X-Men. In front of her the glass fronted A.J. Finance building loomed. Walking up to the building, Vixen didn't flinch as the glass doors slid open just a second too slowly, making her slow down. Take it easy Vixen, relax. A woman at the reception desk looked up and smiled at Ilehana, whilst another spoke on the phone, filing her nails. Ilehana smiled back casually.  
  
"Hi there, I've an appointment with Mr. Mark Smith." Heightened hearing alerted Vixen to the whirl of small motors as security cameras homed in on her position. **Come on Dad! **  
  
The whirl of the cameras continued, the security guard hadn't locked onto her.  
  
**Trust me Ilehana. ** Xavier was smiling despite his efforts.  
  
"Ah yes," The receptionist pointed to a blank computer screen, "Ms Logan, go on through."  
  
**Ms Logan!?! **  
  
**It was the first name that popped into my head. ** Xavier was laughing at his daughter's discomfort. **And I couldn't very well use your real name, could I? **  
  
Ilehana didn't bother to answer, but followed the receptionist's pointing to a door behind the circular reception desk and into a gloomy corridor. Ahead of her, a young man in a dark suit left his office at the end of the corridor. He nodded to her as he walked past her, muttering something about being due a break, and craving a bagel. He hadn't locked the office behind him. The security camera didn't even move as she walked past it and into the abandoned room, locking the door behind her with the key that was still in the inside keyhole.  
  
Looking around briefly Ilehana could see that there were no cameras in the office itself. Obviously dealings went on in here that Jacobi did not want hard evidence of. The grating for the air-con system was quite high up in the wall, and the system wasn't on. Taking a magnetic screwdriver out of her brief case, Ilehana set to taking off the grating, thinking that this was turning out to be a little too easy. 


	14. Scene 14

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: All reviews most definitely welcome!  
  
Scene Fourteen  
  
Vixen did not completely remove the grill from the air vent, instead letting it swing on one screw within easy reach of the inside. The remaining screw she tightened enough so that when the grill was pulled round it would catch and stay in place, not too visibly tampered with. The spare screws she hid in the young man's office draw.  
  
Going back to the briefcase, she pulled out a small pack with elastic straps. Then hastily she stripped off her clothes before stepping into the elastic straps of the pack and pulling it up around her belly. She'd only lose her clothes if she Changed with them on, and clonking about in animal form in the air ducts whilst trying to wriggle out of human clothes was a sure way to give away her presence. Her earpiece she took out and tagged onto one of the two straps. She put her clothes in the briefcase and hid it under the desk. Finally ready, she climbed into the vent, whispering into her radio as she pulled the grate closed behind her.  
  
"I am in the vent, about to Change now."  
  
"Good luck Ilehana." Scott's voice came back clearly over the muttered good lucks of the rest of the team.  
  
Half an hour later, a slender female mountain lion with black ear tips began crawling quietly through the building's air ducts. Fortunately the office staff had for the most part left the building for lunch, no body heard the quiet scratching of claws on smoothed metal. Ilehana the mountain lion knew exactly where she was going. In seemingly no time, she was beginning the slow Change back into human form, easing muscles into old positions and limbs into well-known shapes. She was grateful of her ability to morph into animal form, the ducts were now just a little too small for comfort. In the back of her mind, Ilehana could hear a small child crying, trapped in a small metal box whilst all around her the world came tumbling down. No! Now was not the time to be getting claustrophobic!  
  
**Keep calm Ilehana. You are nearly out. **  
  
**Thanks Dad. **  
  
Slender fingers slid the tiny screwdriver through the gaps in the industrial grating. Carefully she loosened the screws on the outside of the frame, letting the screws fall to the floor and trusting her father's small telekinetic ability to prevent them from rolling near the cameras. Her heart pounded relentlessly and sweat dripped from her brow as she left the duct headfirst. Slowly, gently a naked Ilehana dropped to the cold floor. She wriggled out of the elasticated pack and reached inside it. She had never been so glad to see the X-Men uniform in all her life, and she hoped beyond hope that the cameras in the room really did have a blind spot where she was stood.  
  
Once dressed she placed the other contents of the small bag, two suction cups for climbing up her escape route, on the top of the air conditioning unit. Checking the room she was relieved to see the cameras were indeed fixed-focus door watchers. The computer mainframe was a large whirring box besides her with no monitor or keyboard but Vixen didn't need one. A palmtop computer attached easily to a small port, and Vixen was in. On each side of the room, clicks could be heard as she locked both sets of reinforced doors...  
  
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Beep beep! Beep beep! Beep beep!  
  
Jacobi smiled, turning off the alarm with the press of a button.  
  
"They are in." He announced to his corrupt inner council. Crush smiled, the unusual action contorting his muscular face into an even uglier mask.  
  
"Soon we get to fight?" He asked gruffly.  
  
"Of course, my dear Crush." Jacobi smiled warmly, including all his council in the action. Pierre was the only one to even attempt to smile back. Electra glanced hastily sideways at Mystique. So his little Electra took her cues from the shape-shifter now? Or was she just jealous that Mystique was stood so close to Gambit?  
  
"Are you sure this is wise?" Sal's South African accent betrayed his nervousness. This was why Jacobi preferred to surround himself with mutants; they were generally much less spineless than ordinary humans.  
  
"Of course it is wise. We do not need a pathetic group of vigilante mutants hassling us whilst we try to take over the world." The criticism was heavy in Jacobi's voice; how dare Sal question his wisdom? "We can beat them, here and now. We are prepared, and on our own turf. They don't know that we know that they are here, and they certainly don't know that we have doubled our troops in the last twenty-four hours. Don't worry, my dear Sal, this is child's play, right Remy?"  
  
Gambit smiled thinly, still torn up inside. He'd seen Jacobi's preparations, and he'd studied everything they had on the X-Men. Jacobi certainly had a good chance of wiping Xavier's men out this afternoon, but with Blaze bound to be there Gambit still wasn't sure if he could watch her lose...  
  
At Gambit's side, Mystique stood thinking coldly. She already had his agreement that after today, with the X-Men gone and Blaze with them he would go with her and meet with her boss. Jacobi could keep his money, Magneto would soon have a mutation accelerator all of his own and three new mutant test subjects just dying to help him become more powerful...  
  
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Outside on the busy street Blaze and Rogue were too nervous to worry about the strange looks they were getting for wearing their uniforms in public. Any second now and Ilehana would freeze the frame on the external security cameras and it would be show time. Suddenly, both girls' earpieces buzzed into life.  
  
"You're up Blaze, Rogue. Get moving!" Ilehana sounded almost ruffled. The two X-Men did as they were told, sprinting for the alleyway and relying on the Professor to ensure their unusual appearance was quickly forgotten.  
  
"Good luck girls." Came from Scott, whilst Bobby chipped in with a frantic "Take care!"  
  
It was a hundred metre sprint to the vent, a third of the way down the length of the building. Slick concrete below the grill offered no purchase with which to climb up the opening. Rogue had no idea how on earth Blaze intended to get the grate open. Nervously the young Southern belle looked around as if expecting a handful of police to come running down the alley any second...  
  
"Rogue," Blaze spoke as frantically as Bobby had. "Boost me up there!" She already had a small screwdriver in hand. Rogue did as she was told, allowing Blaze to jump vertically out of her cupped hands.  
  
Amazingly, Blaze somehow made the jump and was clinging one-handily to a small purchase just above the grill. Her heart pounded as she deftly let three screws drop to the floor. Her head throbbed increasingly every second. Finally she performed the same trick as Vixen, screwing the last screw in tighter than it had been so the grill would hold closed with just one pin.  
  
"Rogue, the rope!"  
  
Rogue threw the length of tough polymer fibre up to Blaze in the air duct. In a flash Blaze was heaving the other girl up the wall and with a clatter that was louder than either of them would have liked, they were in. 


	15. Scene 15

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: All reviews most definitely welcome! I have to decide if I should do a sequel or not!  
  
Scene Fifteen  
  
For a second, both mutant girls lay still, breathing heavily. On the jet, the other X-Men listened carefully. Then came the sound of a grate being pulled shut, and everyone from Kurt to Logan breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
"We are in. Vixen, the cameras." Blaze's voice was heavy with the adrenaline. Wolverine could tell she was enjoying this. Sort of.  
  
"Done, Blaze. And good luck." Ilehana signed off for the time being.  
  
"You ready?" Blaze asked Rogue, and the younger girl nodded. Rogue didn't feel particularly ready, but it wasn't going to get any easier if they just sat here. "Good."  
  
Blaze lead the way though the exterior wall of the building, crawling on hands and knees with heads ducked to avoid the low roof. She was, for the first time, glad of the uniform. It allowed her much more freedom of movement than she'd had during her last visit to these tubules. Keeping her concentration was proving to be difficult though, her head was pounding like someone was knocking, trying to get in. And every room they passed on the first floor had a vent in it, a window into the world in which Rem had been transported. Gritting her teeth Blaze kept up the pace. One step at a time. Secure your exits. Get control first. The look for what you came for. Without knowing it, Blaze started to recite the familiar thieves' mantras that Gambit had taught her so long ago...  
  
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"How long are we going to have to wait?" Sal was asking questions again, whilst toying uneasily with his precious revolver.  
  
"How long is a piece of string?" Jacobi replied, trying to keep his voice neutral.  
  
"Blaze will be in the building now, securin' the exits, waitin' for her back-up." Remy shut his unusual eyes tightly; his head was throbbing like there was no tomorrow. "If she can, she will be in the computers. She'll wanna know what personnel you've got here."  
  
"Then why aren't we picking her up?" Sal asked incredulously.  
  
"Because we don't need to, my dear friend." Jacobi's words were through gritted teeth. "She is here after our Remy. If we go for her now, she will alert the X-Men and they will leave. If we wait, all of them will come to us."  
  
On the edge of Gambit's hearing, he could almost make out a girl saying something about door locks. There was the click of an adaptor being put into a computer port. He looked around at the others in the room, but no one else seemed to be hearing anything unusual. The conversation carried on without him, leaving him wondering how he could hear such quiet sounds over Crush's bellowed threats at Sal van Hyre.  
  
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"The door's locked." Slight panic was detectable in Rogue's voice. Blaze smiled at her reassuringly then turned back to put the grill back in place.  
  
"It's okay. It's supposed to be locked. All the locks in this side of the building are computer controlled via this mainframe." Blaze slotted her palmtop adaptor into the computer terminal, before freezing. "Can you hear that?"  
  
"Hear what?" Rogue's whisper took on a more urgent tone. The blank look on her face confused Blaze all the more.  
  
"Never mind, I just thought I heard a man shouting, that's all." She turned back to load up the security systems on her small computer. "Maybe this earpiece is picking up TV signals or something."  
  
"Not possible." Scott's voice over the radio. "Are you in yet Blaze?"  
  
"Am now." Blaze grimaced as she looked at the computer screen, "Wish Jacobi would upgrade this ancient system."  
  
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Beep beep! Beep beep! Beep beep!  
  
The tamper alarm went off in Jacobi's office again. It came as a welcome relief to Sal van Hyre who was flinching away from the giant Crush as Electra came to stand behind her fellow mutant. Everybody froze.  
  
"That's your little minx, Gambit." Electra smiled sweetly at the man.  
  
"How could you tell?" Remy quipped back unsmiling.  
  
"Even the alarm was calling out 'Remy Remy!'"  
  
"That's not funny Electra." Jacobi stepped in front of the woman, stopping Gambit from getting any closer to hitting her. "And Remy, do remember who your new friends are."  
  
"This is ridiculous," Mystique's many voices chimed in. "You people can't even talk to each other without resorting to violence. How do you expect to beat the X-Men if you can't work together?"  
  
"That's what we pay those men out there for, Mystique." Sal obviously had had enough of anybody who claimed mutant brotherhood. "We tell them what to do, we don't fight ourselves!"  
  
"You are a fool if you think that that will be enough against the X-Men." Mystique continued.  
  
"That's enough!" Jacobi yelled before Sal could think of a reply. "We are well prepared and we WILL win today! Now all of you wait like good children and let me THINK!"  
  
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"Ilehana, Blaze, you ready to seal off the lockdown corridor?" Cyclops was almost enjoying this mission. He hadn't expected that. The control, the adrenaline, waiting for the call to move in, it was a better rush than the alcohol. He hadn't even thought of Jean for a while.  
  
"I'm ready." Ilehana sat, back to the computer mainframe and facing the doors with her tiny palmtop waiting for her command.  
  
"Me too," Blaze was standing, but also poised to act.  
  
"On my mark." Scott counted down. "Three, two, one!"  
  
"Lockdown compete." Two female voices chimed back across the radio. Next to him, Ororo breathed a sigh of relief. At least now no ordinary people would get hurt.  
  
"What's next?" Bobby asked, leaning on Storm's chair to see the implements and read outs on the jet's control panel.  
  
"Next, we lockout as many of Jacobi's troops as possible." Cyclops commentated.  
  
"Aww, do we have to?" Wolverine commented, and received a grin from Nightcrawler in return.  
  
"Its done Cyclops." Blaze announced. "And the camera's on the roof are frozen so get your backsides in here, we don't have long before somebody spots that all the doors are locked!"  
  
"We're already taking off." Storm informed her friend, just as the jet took a lurch and entered the air.  
  
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Rogue paced the tiny room anxiously. She kept hearing people marching past the door, she was certain that any second someone would open the door and find them.  
  
"Relax Rogue, the door is in my control only now, nobody from the outside can open it." Blaze was already inside the camera image bank, scanning for any sign of her old friend.  
  
"How did you know that's what I was thinkin'?"  
  
"Lucky guess?"  
  
Rogue paced the floor for a few more seconds, tugging at the gloves on her fingers. At Blaze's exclamation she stopped and went to lean over her friend's shoulder.  
  
"There! Remy has just left Jacobi's office, alone! Scott where the hell are you!"  
  
The whir of the jet landing on the roof answered the question before Cyclops had time too. On board the plane, Wolverine let his adimantium claws slip out through his knuckles. This was going to be fun... 


	16. Scene 16

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: I have no idea what I am going to do when I've finished this, any suggestions on a postcard please!  
  
Scene Sixteen  
  
Remy left the office despite Jacobi's protestations, sick of the pettiness of those he left behind. The gantry should have been lined with soldiers, but those that were on duty had left their posts unmanned. Instead they bashed frantically at the reinforced electronically locked doors to their barracks with their rifles and shoulders. So this was it, strangely Gambit felt only calm.  
  
The hum of a jet engine seemed to suddenly make the floor shake. Wordless shouts came from the men on the gantry, and suddenly their trapped colleagues were forgotten. Safeties were knocked off the guns, positions were filled and even Gambit found himself holding an ace of spades in his right hand, ready for action.  
  
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"You ready Rogue?" Blaze's voice practically buzzed with anticipation. In reply Rogue removed her uniform gloves. She may not like her power, but it was the only weapon she had. Blaze wished that she too had some form of mutant attack, but if wishes were horses... And she did still have a few tricks up her sleeve. Punching another command sequence into the palmtop she prepared to open the door to the tiny computer room.  
  
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Cyclops was opening the jet's hatch before he had even fully touched the great blackbird down. With a thud and a judder the jet landed on the helipad, and the X-Men had arrived. Next to him Storm's eyes where white and lightning-blessed, and static filled the air. Outside the clear afternoon sunlight was blacked out with hastily gathering storm clouds. With goddess-like power she commanded lightning bolts, clearing the roof of Jacobi's minions.  
  
The rest of the team undid their harnesses and leap to action. They ran for the roof door like men possessed, the power of Storm raging around them. Claws unsheathed, Wolverine sliced at the lock, pulling the electronic mechanism clean of the door with a snarl.  
  
"I'm sure Blaze left that unlocked for us, Wolverine." Cyclops stepped past Logan with a snide smile and entered the atrium of Jacobi's building. Wolverine looked at Iceman.  
  
"But where's the fun in that?"  
  
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The lock overridden, the door to the room where Blaze and Rogue had been working opened with a hiss. Within seconds they stood at the opposite end of the gantry to their five X-Men colleagues. And then the armed men were firing at them, bullets ripped through the air. Nightcrawler sprung into action, disappearing and reappearing all around the room, kicking and snatching weapons from the startled men. A trail of blue smoke coiled serpent-like around the room marked his progress. With great skill his martial art movements left more than one man lying helpless on the floor.  
  
Blaze and Rogue sprinted unthinking towards their fellows. With his laser vision Cyclops blasted gunman after gunman. Sharp ribbons of red light ripped the room into fragments, each time he fired Cyclops took another man out. With a yell, one man fell backwards over the gantry rail, crashing onto his back on the concrete floor below.  
  
Wolverine ran to meet the two girls; head down he dodged the bullets with claws unsheathed. Without stopping he charged straight between Blaze and Rogue, slicing a minion who had come up behind them. With a gulp the stabbed man fell to the floor, bleeding.  
  
At the same time, Iceman, frowning with concentration, put a bare hand to the wall. Like tendrils of a creeping plant, ice moved along the wall and floor. Before they knew it, three men across the gangway were encased to their knees in solid, chilling ice. It continued growing, reaching up to trap their arms and weapons as the men started to panic.  
  
With Rogue and Blaze a short three steps away from Cyclops, Bobby and Storm, a new volley of bullets leapt through the air. With a wordless yell, Wolverine threw himself in front of the girls, taking three bullets in the chest and falling backwards against the wall. In the doorway for the roof, Storm stepped forwards involuntarily as Logan fell. Another bullet took her in the shoulder. Blaze was horrified as Storm cried out in pain. Her own shoulder, with its not long healed bullet wound throbbed in sympathy. Rogue ran to catch Storm as she fell, barely remembering to not touch Storm's skin with her bare hands.  
  
In a fraction of a second, Nightcrawler too was at Storm's side, aiding Rogue with first aid and talking in his most calming tone to his wounded friend. Defensively, Cyclops, Iceman, Blaze and the fast healing Wolverine stood in a semi-circle around their fallen colleague. Looking out across the room, they could see that many of Jacobi's troops had been defeated. Only a handful remained standing and armed, gathered in the centre of the ground floor, muzzles of their weapons pointed at the X-Men. There was no sign of Gambit or any of Jacobi's inner circle.  
  
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As the first gunshots rang out, and the X-Men made their appearance, Gambit had felt a strong hand take hold of his wrist. Mystique hissed in his ear "Come with me..."  
  
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"Drop the weapons!" There was no room for argument in Cyclops' tone. His finger rested lightly on the trigger of his visor.  
  
"Make us!" One of the twelve remaining men called out, fear obvious in his voice. Shrugging slightly, Cyclops hit the trigger. In the same instant, the man who had spoke fired his weapon. The bullet ricochet harmlessly off one wall. Cyclops' laser blast knocked the man off his feet and sent him backwards. The rest of the men let their guns drop clattering to the floor before kicking them away from themselves, eyes wearily staying locked on the X-Men.  
  
"Iceman, freeze them." Cyclops was taking no chances. Bobby raised his hands and sent a jet of ice crystal towards the men. He built a wall ten feet high around the men, ignoring their cries. In a second pulse of ice he froze their weapons. He didn't think they would get over the wall, but if they did they would have no guns to fight back with.  
  
"How is she?" Wolverine asked Nightcrawler.  
  
"Not so good, she bleeds much." The blue mutant could not keep the fear from his voice.  
  
"Nightcrawler, Rogue, get Storm back on the jet. Vixen are you there?" Cyclops spoke quickly.  
  
"Yeah." Came the reply over the radio. "I'm on my way, don't worry."  
  
"Good." Cyclops' face was stern behind the visor. "Wolverine, Blaze, Iceman you're with me." He walked towards the gantry steps, heading for the ground level. Iceman and Wolverine followed him, but Blaze hesitated. Something unnerving tickled at the back of her mind, something wasn't as it should be... 


	17. Scene 17

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: Nearly all done now, sob sob! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this so far, and if you haven't please do!  
  
Scene Seventeen  
  
"I guess they are in there?" Iceman nodded towards a door marked simply 'A. Jacobi'.  
  
"Looks like it. Are you...?" Cyclops was cut off by a hasty "Hush!" from Wolverine. The adimantium-armed mutant sniffed heavily twice, before walking to the desk outside of Jacobi's office door.  
  
"Get up." He ordered, and a woman dressed in civilian clothes obliged, whimpering. "What's your name?" Cyclops folded his arms, not happy with Wolverine taking charge.  
  
"Carla." Jacobi's secretary replied almost sulkily.  
  
"Is Jacobi in his office?" Wolverine inquired almost politely.  
  
"Yes." Again a sulky one-word reply.  
  
"Then, Carla, you might wanna get out of here." With another whimper she obliged, disappearing over the other side of the atrium. "Good enough for you Cyc?"  
  
"Think you can do as good a job opening this door?" Cyclops indicated to Jacobi's lock, an old-fashioned needs-a-key number. With glee Wolverine pulled back two of his claws.  
  
"Got the key right here."  
  
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Inside the office, the desk had been overturned to make a temporary rampart. Behind it the three humans trained their guns on the doorway. These mutants didn't have a chance...  
  
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Blaze had not descended the stairway with Cyclops and the others. She couldn't place it, but something was calling to her inside of her head. Hesitantly, slowly she walked around the gantry, booted feet clanging in the now relative quiet of the room. Somewhere a man whimpered, injured. The cries of those trapped by Bobby's ice where receding, muffled. Cyclops and Wolverine spoke to a woman down on the floor below. Carefully Blaze pushed open an unlocked door...  
  
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Crash! The locking mechanism for Jacobi's office fell to the concrete floor. With an animalistic cry Wolverine charged through the door into a volley of bullets. His eyes bulged with the pain and somebody almost laughed. But then Wolverine was on them, claws slicing. Sal van Hyre yelped and fell backwards as his precious gun was cut in half. Immediately van Hyre was struck with a blast of cold ice, making him gasp. He fell to the floor, arms pinned by the ice-bolt.  
  
Bobby stood in the doorway, ready to immobilise Wolverine's next opponent when he felt himself struck by a colossal fist. He flew backwards, knocking into Cyclops. The giant mutant Crush filled the doorframe where Bobby had been stood, cracking his knuckles and grinning.  
  
"Little boy wants to play rough?" He asked Iceman who scowled in reply. Cyclops rolled away as Bobby got to his feet.  
  
"You bet." Bare palms towards the larger mutant, Bobby sent an ice-bolt straight at Crush's chest. It wrapped around him, and for a second seemed to hold him. Then with a crunch the ice shattered, shards flew in every direction. Bobby covered his eyes to protect them as the monster Crush laughed. The muscular mutant took a few steps towards Iceman and made as if to pick him up. Then with a yelp he stopped, hit from the side by a red laser beam.  
  
"Why don't you pick on someone else?" Cyclops yelled out.  
  
"My pleasure." Laughed Crush, turning to lumber towards Cyclops. Iceman saw his chance. Touching fingertips to the floor he turned the concrete into a skating rink and sent Crush slipping over. The huge mutant slammed down on his back, head thudding against the concrete and fracturing Bobby's ice sheet.  
  
"What's that thing about the bigger they are?" Iceman asked Cyclops, and they both grinned briefly.  
  
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Wolverine didn't have time to look back as Bobby iced van Hyre. In seconds a white-skinned, blue-haired and blue-eyed woman dressed in shiny blue plastic was on him. With startling agility and speed Electra thudded home punch after punch, each one packed with volts, and all the time staying out of the reach of Wolverine's claws. Roaring his frustration and pain as electricity flooded his senses; Wolverine whipped the gun out of the hands of Pierre Cardomé who cowered out of the way behind the desk. In a fluid movement he slammed the butt of the gun into Electra's chest, making her catch her breath. But in that instant when Wolverine had an advantage to press home, Cardomé found his nerve and jumped the Wolverine from behind. Pinned by the skinny Frenchman, Wolverine struggled as Electra placed her bare hands to his temples.  
  
"It will be easier if you don't fight it." She muttered, looking deep into his eyes. Then she unleashed her power. Wolverine fell to his knees in agony, Pierre Cardomé was thrown clear by the power of the electricity, and Electra smiled amicably.  
  
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In the darkened laboratory, Blaze squinted as she waited for her vision to adjust. Within seconds against the green glow of the equipment she could make out a familiar silhouette.  
  
"Remy?" She asked of the darkness, almost afraid of the answer. The shadow figure tensed, extending an arm holding a long, thin pole from the outline of a long trench coat. "Remy, is that you?" The hairs on the back of Blaze's neck stood up on end, every nerve in her head was screaming now. Something was very very wrong here.  
  
"You shouldn't be here." His voice was cold, hard, but it was his voice. Blaze took a step forwards, but the Gambit-shadow stepped back equally. "I don't want to hurt you."  
  
"What are you doing here, Gambit? What's going on?" It was happening again, he was cutting her out of his life, telling her she couldn't be part of his plans... Blaze could feel the panic in her stomach start to break down her walls. No! She had to remain in control!  
  
"You don't belong here, Blaze. Leave. Take your new friends with you and leave. Now."  
  
"Je ne pas comprendre." Desperate she tried again to approach him. He planted the pole firmly on the concrete and from standing swung round it. Blaze gasped as his two feet hit her in the midriff and sent her flying backwards. Her head slammed against the concrete wall. For a second she was stunned. Then it was like floodgate opening. She saw with another's eyes, breathed with another's breath. And she understood what she had to do.  
  
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"Arrgh!" Electra pulled her hands away slightly from Wolverine's temples. Blue bolts of lightning ran quicksilver through her fingers and into his pounding skull. He gasped for every breath, feeling his healing powers loosing grip, not being able to keep up with the damage to his nervous system. "Arrgh!" He screamed again, and Electra laughed.  
  
Suddenly a bolt of red light combined with a pulse of white ice knocked Electra off her feet. She wailed as she hit the desk and toppled over it. Wolverine collapsed to the floor, exhausted.  
  
"You okay Wolverine?" Bobby asked as he came to stand over his prone friend.  
  
"What took ya so long?" Wolverine gasped in reply, pulling himself back onto all four.  
  
"Iceman, freeze her!" Scott called out as Electra began to get back to her feet. Bobby tried to oblige, but already she was jumping over the desk, hands outstretched and electricity bolting out of her palms. Cyclops dived across the room, knocking Bobby out of Electra's path and taking her attack himself. "Arrgh!"  
  
In a second Iceman had recovered. With a fierce blast he pinned Electra to the floor, trapping her with ice up to her neck. She wailed again, a high- pitched wail that echoed around the room. In one corner Pierre Cardomé twitched involuntarily, Electra's power making him fit and spasm on the floor. Slowly Wolverine and Cyclops gathered themselves, and Bobby's smile of thanks at Cyclops was answered with a slow nod.  
  
"So where's Jacobi?" Logan asked, cracking his knuckles.  
  
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With heaving breath and sweat pouring down his face, Alessandro Jacobi ran like he had never ran before. Let the others take the wrath of the X-Men, he was not so stupid. Ever thankful for the secret exit through the wall of his office, Jacobi had slipped away when the X-Men had begun to win. He swore that one day the X-Men and Blaze would pay for the damage they had done him, the careful plans they had ruined... 


	18. Scene 18

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: Don't forget to review : )  
  
Scene Eighteen  
  
Gambit stood back from the dazed Blaze, giving her one last chance to get up and leave. She didn't. Standing slowly she suddenly launched herself at the man in front of her. With supreme agility she swung a roundhouse kick at his head, both feet leaving the ground. He staggered back before Blaze's fist slammed into his ribs. Again and again she pummelled him, driving him back calmly into the centre of the room.  
  
With a hiss Gambit began to fight back, also agile he landed punches quicker than Blaze could block them. They battled like they were possessed, but neither seemed to gain ground against the other. Then in an instant Gambit grabbed a large chunk of equipment, ripping it from the laboratory wall and slamming it down on Blaze's head. She fell back, and for a second she felt the fire building inside her. Almost naturally she found herself doing as Xavier had taught her. She looked into the core of her being, found the wellspring of her power. Instead of grabbing for a tendril of her fire, she let it wrap itself around her, welcoming it.  
  
Blaze opened her eyes. In her hand balls of bright orange fire grew, beautiful and alive. Looking up at Gambit she smiled, and launched the fireballs at him. Fire consumed him, sent him flying across the room, crashing over equipment and slamming into the wall. Then all was still.  
  
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"Did I know you could do that Petite?" Gambit asked, intrigued.  
  
**If you did you were steps ahead of me. ** He frowned as she spoke in his head. But then she smiled, ran over to him and hugged him. "I've missed you so much!"  
  
They held each other for only a second, friends reunited. Then almost coyly Blaze spoke again.  
  
"So who's the shape shifter?" She nodded to the prone blue form by the back wall.  
  
"Mystique." Remy spat the name like it left a bad taste in her mouth. "She promised she wouldn't hurt you, just send you away."  
  
"Why Remy?" Blaze turned her eyes from Mystique to look pleadingly at her friend. "Why do you want me to leave?"  
  
"You've new friends now. Powerful friends. A telepath..." Remy shrugged unsmiling. There was a small taint of fear in his New Orleans accent. "I don't want nobody messing in my head."  
  
Blaze frowned for a second. Then she could almost feel Xavier smiling trustingly back in Cerebro.  
  
**Blaze, when I first met you, you didn't trust me either. I hope by now I have earned that trust. ** Xavier didn't wait for her confirmation. **You may by now have realised that you too have a small amount of telepathic ability. Gambit certainly has. Whilst you have been apart, your subconscious has been reaching out for him, trying to support and assist him...**  
  
**The dreams? The dreams were real? ** Blaze was shocked.  
  
**Yes, I do believe so. ** The Professor continued. ** That link you have forged is a powerful one. I would like to use it now, if I may, to introduce myself to Gambit. With any luck, I will be able to convince Gambit too that the X-Men can be trusted. **  
  
**By all means Professor, but why do you need this link to talk to him? **  
  
** Technically I don't, ** The Professor was smiling again. **Consider this an introduction by a mutual friend; you. It's just polite. **  
  
"Blaze is you okay?" Gambit was looking at her strangely.  
  
** I'm fine. Just talking to a friend. ** She smiled again, trying to reassure him. ** It's not such a bad thing, telepathy. **  
  
** But then you got nothin' to hide Petite. **  
  
** Gambit? ** A strange voice asked in his head, male and powerful, yet kind and trusting. ** You needn't worry. No telepath with any sort of control would enter another's mind without permission. **  
  
** You did it to Blaze. ** Gambit replied, and then wondered how he knew.  
  
** I did. ** The Professor replied. ** But only to save her life. And, I seem to remember, you approved at the time. **  
  
Suddenly Gambit remembered, as though remembering a dream on waking, or words to a song thought forgotten. He had been in his cell, alone and bored. He'd fallen asleep, and begun to dream of Blaze again. But this time was much worse. She was lost, scared. She didn't want to carry on. The more he tried to help her the more she pulled away, getting weaker and weaker. Then someone else had intruded on the dream. For a while Blaze fought him too, but neither would she let Remy help her fight. Finally he had revealed himself, everything about himself, his life and his loves. He had earned both their trust in that moment. But now it turned out not to be a dream, but reality?  
  
Through the bond between Blaze and Gambit, Xavier poured his self again. This time to the X-Men he added his pride at Blaze's progress with her powers, and her loyalty to both the X-Men and to Gambit. At the same time, Blaze poured her trust of Xavier and her friends the X-Men, adding her own feelings to the Professors. Awed by his friend's new grasp of her powers, Gambit did not consciously decide to trust the Professor. It was simply that he no longer distrusted an unknown telepath who had corrupted his friend. He knew this telepath as well as he knew himself; Xavier hid nothing.  
  
Finally Xavier retreated, allowing the friends their privacy. He left only one image in both their minds, that of the mutation accelerator.  
  
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"Jacobi offered you a go, didn't he?" Blaze asked as they both stood by the impressive machine.  
  
"Yeah." Gambit wasn't sure how he felt about destroying it.  
  
"I saw it kill someone. A mutant." Blaze looked up at the tall man stood next to her; saw his red-on-black eyes narrow as he dragged his hand through his mop of hair.  
  
**I know. ** He answered, **I've had many strange dreams lately. **  
  
** You want to do the honours? ** He nodded, going round to the computer console at the foot of the machine. Placing bare fingers on the screen for a moment, the computer began to turn yellow, then orange as Gambit charged it with his explosive power.  
  
"Stand back." Gambit order Blaze. With a tumble he flipped back and out of the way, just as the computer exploded with a crash!  
  
"My turn." Blaze said with vehemence. She clicked her fingers, creating a small flame that danced on top of her glove. Going to where Gambit had destroyed the console she flicked the tiny fireball into the pump below. In seconds the fire was raging throughout the machine's pipes and into the cylinders of potent mutation accelerant. The whole machine began to burn, flames running up the extendable arms and lapping over the metallic surface.  
  
"Time to go?" Gambit offered.  
  
"One second." Blaze replied. She went to where Mystique had fallen. On the floor beside the shape shifter a palmtop computer lay discarded. Picking it up, Blaze discovered detailed plans for a second machine. Blaze clasped the device between her hands and moments later it dripped heavily to the floor.  
  
"What about her?" Gambit asked, nodding to the unconscious Mystique.  
  
"Drag her outside. Then I can torch the place properly." Blaze answered darkly. Gambit was only too happy to oblige.  
  
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Not too long after, with the laboratory burning merrily, the black X-Men jet took off from the helipad. Ilehana tended to Storm, Cyclops was at home at the controls and Blaze lent sleepily on Gambit's shoulder.  
  
** You know what, Gambit. ** She said telepathically.  
  
** What Petite? ** He asked.  
  
** I could really murder a pizza right about now. ** 


	19. Scene 19

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the character Ilehana Xavier.  
  
A/N: Okay, last chapter. Just to say thanks again to Corrinth, and to all my reviewers, thanks for your input, feedback and encouragement. I hope that you have all enjoyed reading this story as much as I have writing it? Bye for now- Lamby**  
  
Scene Nineteen  
  
"Much as I would love to let you stay here, Gambit, this is a school and you are still an escaped criminal..."  
  
"I know, Professor. I know. Just gimme one more day..."  
  
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The basketball rattled through the hoop yet again and Wolverine scowled heavily at his opponent.  
  
"What you grinnin' at, Cajun?"  
  
"Maybe this not your game eh Wolverine? A little too short..." Gambit smiled amicably at Logan. The sun shone down hazily on the Xavier mansion, a last brief taste of summer before autumn turned stormy and cold. On a low wall by the basketball court Rogue, Kitty and Jubilee sat giggling as they watched Logan, Scott, Bobby and Gambit play basketball. Gambit and Cyclops were winning comfortably and Logan didn't like it.  
  
"We'll see about that, Cajun..."  
  
"What? Now you threaten Gambit?"  
  
"Hey guys, are we playing here or what?" Bobby called out from down the court.  
  
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In the doorway of the mansion, Storm and Blaze emerged casually. Ororo's wounded arm lay fast in a sling, it was healing well according to Ilehana, but still it caused her much pain. Never complaining she bore it well, but Blaze's blooming telepathy meant she felt much of her friend's weariness.  
  
For a moment they stood in silence, watching as Gambit stopped playing to chat flirtatiously with the girls sat on the wall. All three were looking up at him with big girly eyes and Bobby was fuming. Impatiently he hurled the basketball at the back of Gambit's head.  
  
**Duck! ** Blaze ordered her old friend. He did so, and the ball went bouncing off into the distance. Wolverine cackled with laughter and even Scott was grinning, even if Bobby didn't seem too amused. **Stop flirting Remy, or Bobby'll explode. **  
  
** Sorry Petite. ** He was laughing too. A child threw the ball back and Gambit caught it, returning to the game.  
  
"Sometimes..." Blaze sighed. Storm spoke musically.  
  
"He doesn't mean to hurt you Blaze, he cares for you."  
  
"What, now everyone's a telepath?" Blaze returned her friend's smile. "Nah, I know. He's just a flirt, and a joker, and a damn good friend. I wouldn't want him to change, not ever."  
  
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She walked towards him then, long grey-black skirt brushing the ground at the back, opening in a split to above her knees at the front. The grey strappy vest she wore had black lace trim, and her hair was loose like golden mist around her shoulders. She looked stunning, and more than that she looked happy here. At the back of his mind Gambit felt dark clouds gathering. He pushed them away; he would deal with them later. Instead he left the basketball court, feeling kinda scruffy in a pair of Cyclops' worn blue jeans and white t-shirt.  
  
**You look good little one, but I think I prefer the black uniform...** He put a picture in her head that would have made Wolverine blush, but she only laughed out loud.  
  
** You're impossible! ** He shrugged, grinning.  
  
They walked together away from the mansion and the X-Men who were exchanging knowing glances. They made their way side by side to the gazebo, and past it to the hidden lawn where Blaze had first met Nightcrawler.  
  
"You speak with the Professor?" She asked him aloud.  
  
"Yeah." She knew the verdict before he spoke. "He won't hide me here, an' I understand why. Too many problems, too many people to protect." He touched her chin with a finger, before wiping away a single glistening tear from her cheek.  
  
"Where will you go then?" She asked, trying to keep her voice from breaking.  
  
"The Professor's called the prison. I go back tonight. Somehow he convinced them to ignore this lil' episode. Five months, one week and three days and I'm a free man for good."  
  
They spoke no more of the inevitable, instead sharing opinions and memories and laughter like they had never been apart...  
  
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The police car appeared at the end of the drive as the sun was setting behind the mansion. Cyclops went to meet it with a bottle of soda in his hand. Somehow since the mission yesterday he hadn't felt like drinking. He still missed Jean with an ache that was crippling, but somewhere inside him he knew that it wasn't the end. He still had his job to do, his job as an X- Man.  
  
"Five months little one, that's all." Gambit hugged Blaze close.  
  
"I know, and what's five months compared to the seventeen you've been away already?"  
  
"Exactly." He released her and smiled. **You keep in touch though too, Amie? **  
  
** Of course. ** She hesitated a moment. **But I don't know if I can work this long distance. **  
  
** But its not far from here to...**  
  
**I'm going home, Remy. Back to England. I realised I don't even know where my parents are buried. I want to show them all I've learnt, and to say goodbye. **  
  
He hugged her again, knowing how difficult she had found that decision.  
  
**Just you make sure you are back to meet Gambit when he comes out, okay? ** Remy smiled, and Blaze smiled right back.  
  
**It's a date. **  
  
He left her then, walking down to the waiting policemen. One of them put their hand on Remy's head, pushing him into the back of the vehicle. The other thanked Cyclops for the school's help, though he appeared quite vacant. Cyclops returned the thanks, knowing the Professor was working overtime in Cerebro to pull this off for Gambit. No questions asked, no extended sentence, like all this never happened. Cyclops smiled to himself, the Professor really was one of a kind. It made him proud to be an X-Man.  
  
**Blaze? ** The car began to pull away as Gambit called out to her one last time.  
  
**Remy. **  
  
**I got one question, Amie. What's your real name?"  
  
For a moment Blaze wanted to refuse to tell him. She hadn't used her real name since she left home all those years ago. But then if she was to go back...  
  
** I'd really like to know Blaze. ** He didn't force her, just showed her a little of how much it would mean to him that she trust him that much...Trust is such a powerful word.....  
  
** It's Laura. Just Laura...**  
  
She felt his gratitude, but already the link was fading a little. She couldn't sustain it for long consciously yet. Still, there was plenty of time to learn. Silently Scott came to walk next to Blaze as she headed back to the mansion. Five months, plenty of time to expand her powers, become a hero, and to join the ranks of the X-Men.  
  
**The End** 


End file.
